• Care Home
  • Care home

Ambleside Bank Care Home

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

High Street (Off Ince Green Lane), Lower Ince, Wigan, Greater Manchester, WN3 4RL (01942) 321112

Provided and run by:
Century Healthcare Limited

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 25 January 2024

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 1 Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Ambleside Bank is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Ambleside Bank is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. The current manager had submitted an application to register. We are currently assessing this application.

Notice of inspection

The first day of inspection was unannounced. We visited the home on the 10 and 12 January 2024.

What we did before the inspection

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information and evidence we already held about the home, which had been collected via our ongoing monitoring of care services. This included notifications sent to us by the home. Notifications are changes, events or incidents that the provider is legally obliged to send to us without delay. We also asked for feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the home. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 11 people and 6 relatives about the home and the care provided. We also spoke with 10 members of staff, which included the manager, deputy manager, clinical operations manager, care and activity staff.

We looked at 4 people’s care plans and risk assessments. We also looked at medicines and associated records for 5 people. We reviewed a range of documentation which included safety records and certification, accident and incident records, recruitment records, audit and governance information.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 25 January 2024

About the service

Ambleside Bank is a purpose-built care home situated close to Wigan town centre, which provides

accommodation and personal care for up to 40 people. The home is registered to support younger and older adults and people living with a dementia. At the time of inspection 38 people were living at the home.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People and relatives spoke positively about the care and support provided at Ambleside Bank. People told us they received safe care from staff who knew them well. One told us, “If you need looking after, this is the place to be. The staff are great, nothing is too much trouble.” Staff had received regular training in safeguarding and know how to identify and report any concerns. Enough staff were deployed to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. The provider was happy to increase staff should people’s needs change. Accidents, incidents and falls had been documented along with actions taken. The home was clean with effective cleaning and infection control processes in place.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People, relatives and staff spoke positively about the home and how it was run. Management were reported to be open, approachable, and worked hard to guarantee standards were upheld, whilst ensuring the home was a nice place to work. People’s views were sought through meetings and questionnaires, with updates provided so people knew what actions had been taken based on their feedback. A range of systems and processes were used to monitor the quality of the service provided. Action plans were used to help drive improvements.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service was good (published 16 June 2018).

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to assess whether the current rating of good was still accurate. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well-led, as these were the only key questions inspected. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.