3 November 2011
During a routine inspection
This was the first visit to this service since the transfer to the new provider 'Turning Point'.
On the day of the visit on 3 November 2011, we spoke with the manager, staff and those people living in the home who were able to verbally communicate. There were no visitors, either relatives or health care professionals, in the home on the day of the visit.
Due to the needs of some people living at the home who were unable to verbally share their experiences, we spent time observing the support given to people and how they spent their day. We observed how staff offered people care and support and how staff spoke with them. We looked at how staff treated them to ensure that they were treated with dignity, were able to stay as independent as possible and if they were offered privacy.
We found that staff treated people kindly and respectfully and demonstrated that they knew them as individuals and understood their individual and personal needs.
We looked at the care planning documentation to see what guidance was given to staff, to ensure that people received their care as they required to meet their needs. We looked to see if systems were in place to offer this in a safe way. We found that care plans were very detailed and demonstrated that staff understood each person as an individual. Risk areas were identified with plans in place on how to minimise and manage these.
People living in this service have challenging health needs. We looked at records to see that people's health needs were managed well and spoke with staff about training to ensure that they had the skills to meet these needs.
Staff spoken with told us that they were well supported by senior staff. They felt that they received a good level of training to ensure that they knew how to deal with incidents and understood how to keep people safe. We saw that staffing levels were at a level appropriate to the needs of the people currently living there.
We looked at the quality of the food provided, how staff ensured that people received correct nutrition and how preferences were taken into consideration in menu planning. We saw that people received a balanced menu of home cooked food and that people were involved in shopping and cooking to the best of their abilities.
We saw that the home provided a small, homely and comfortable living environment for the five people that lived there. There are currently two empty rooms.
We looked at people's personal rooms. One person showed us their room and how personal this was with their own colour choices and personal items including towels and bedding. We saw that the correct equipment was available to allow staff to handle people safely and that the environment was clean.