About the service The Good Companions (Cumbria) Ltd is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 39 people. The service provides support to older people, some of whom may have dementia-related needs. At the time of our inspection there were 31 people using the service.
The care home is a large, adapted building. The accommodation is over three floors. People living with a dementia-related condition were accommodated on a lower ground floor unit with access to a sheltered, secure courtyard and gardens.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and relatives had many positive comments about the caring, welcoming and warm atmosphere in the home. People said staff were kind, friendly and helpful. Relatives said the Good Companions was homely and provided personalised care for each person.
People and relatives said it was a safe place to live and they felt supported and encouraged by staff to lead fulfilling lives. Risks to people were now assessed and managed in a safe way. The home was clean, bright and well-maintained.
People got appropriate support with their medicines, but records were not always completed correctly. We have made a recommendation about this.
There were enough staff to support people. New staff were appropriately vetted before they started to work at the home. People said staff were “always on hand” and relatives commented, “Staff respond to the call buttons quickly.”
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service upheld this practice.
People and relatives described the provider and registered manager as open and amenable. Staff said they felt supported by the new registered manager and enjoyed working at the home.
The registered manager carried out checks of the quality and safety of the service and acted on any issues. The provider and registered manager were committed to improvements. Shortfalls from the last inspection had been addressed and a refurbishment programme was taking place.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published on 25 January 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection. We carried out an unannounced inspection of this service on 25 November 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and good governance.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Good Companions (Cumbria) Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.