Wolfe House Care Home

Updated 29 December 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 14 December 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.

We asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to our inspection. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. This enabled us to ensure we were addressing potential areas of concern at our inspection. We reviewed the PIR as part of our inspection.

During the inspection we spoke with six people who lived at the home. We spoke with the registered manager, the registered providers and five staff. We read care plans for eight people, medicines records and the records of accidents and incidents. We looked at mental capacity assessments and applications made to deprive people of their liberty. We also received feedback from one social care professional.

We also looked records of staff training. We saw records of quality assurance audits. We looked at a selection of policies and procedures and health and safety audits. We also looked at minutes of meetings of staff, people and relatives.

Updated 29 December 2018

This inspection took place on 14 December 2018 and was unannounced.

Wolfe House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. Wolfe House can accommodate up to 16 people in one adapted building. At the time of our inspection there were 11 older people living at the home, some of whom were living with dementia.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager assisted us in our inspection.

We found at times staff were not always deployed across the service in a way which meant people received their meals promptly. We also found that at times the registered manager did not display a person-centred approach towards people. We have issued a recommendation in relation these to the registered providers.

People’s medicines were managed safely. Staff had identified risks to people and when people had accidents or incidents these were recorded and analysed. People were cared for by staff who understood their responsibility in relation to recognising and reporting abuse. Fire safety equipment and fire drills were carried out so staff would know what to do in an emergency.

People were cared for by staff who underwent a recruitment process to ensure they were suitable to work at the service. People lived in an environment that was clean and well maintained.

People’s consent was sought before providing care, in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were provided with support to access healthcare professionals and their dietary needs were monitored to ensure they remained healthy.

People’s needs were assessed before moving into the service and they were cared for by staff who had access to the training and support they needed to carry out their roles.

People could make their own decisions and retain some independence. People were cared for by staff who demonstrated a kind, caring, respectful and attentive attitude towards people. People were supported to maintain relationships that meant something to them.

People had access to activities and the recruitment of an activities lead had enhanced the choices available to them. People’s care plans were detailed and contained a range of information about them to assist staff in providing responsive care. This included some end of life information.

People were aware of how to make a complaint, however no one we spoke with said they had felt the need to do so. Regular auditing of the service was carried out and in order to help make improvements, people, relatives and staff were asked for their feedback through annual questionnaires. The staff worked with external agencies to help improve the experience people had of living at Wolfe House.