5 November 2014
During a routine inspection
Cavendish Road is a residential care home which provides accommodation and personal care support for up to 13 people. The service provides support for people living with mental health conditions. There were 11 people living at the service at the time of our inspection.
This was an unannounced inspection which took place on 5 November 2014.
Our last inspection of Cavendish Road care home was on 8 May 2014 where we found moderate concerns in relation to the care and welfare of people, the management of people’s medicines and monitoring the quality and safety of the service. Following our inspection the provider sent us an action plan to tell us the improvements they were going to make. During this inspection we looked to see if these improvements had been made. We found that improvements had been made.
The service has a new manager who had been in post two months. The manager was absent on the day of our inspection. The operations and development manager told us that the new manager had recently submitted an application to register as the manager of the service with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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.
Staff were caring and respectful and had the required knowledge they needed to meet people’s needs. Staff treated people with respect and were kind and compassionate towards them. People told us they found the staff and management approachable and could speak to them if they were concerned about anything.
Medication was stored safely and administered correctly. The provider had robust systems in place to detect medication errors and took action promptly to rectify these.
People were encouraged to lead the life style of their choice and staff supported them to meet their diverse needs and their privacy and dignity was respected.
Staff had been trained and had the skills and knowledge to provide support to the people they cared for. They understood the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards which meant they were working within the law to support people who may lack capacity to make their own decisions.
People had access to healthcare professionals when they became unwell or required specialist help with an existing medical condition.
People’s independence was encouraged and their hobbies and leisure interests were individually assessed. Staff encouraged and supported people to access voluntary work placements and activities within the community.
The provider had a system in place for responding to people’s concerns and complaints. People told us they knew how to complain and felt confident that staff would respond and take action to support them.
Staff told us they found the new manager supportive and they were happy working at the service. They felt they were listened to and empowered to do their job well with the training and development provided.