This inspection took place on the 9 December 2015 and was unannounced.
Blackbourne View is a housing with care complex run by Orwell Housing and is registered to provide personal care to people living within their own flats. The scheme has 34 flats. On the day of our inspection the manager told us there were 33 living at the scheme.
There was a registered manager. 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.
People’s safety had been considered and were at a reduced risk of harm as staff understood their roles and responsibilities. Staff had the required knowledge and knew what action to take to protect people from harm and what action to take if they had concerns.
There was a system in place to audit medication errors and determining the roles and responsibilities of staff. The provider’s policy was in the process of being updated as it did not currently provide staff with the guidance they needed in the ordering and obtaining of people’s medicines. Staff also required guidance in understanding the difference between prompting people to take their medicines and actual administration.
There were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people’s needs. The manager followed safe recruitment practices.
Staff were provided with regular supervision, annual appraisals. This enabled staff to be supported and provided with opportunities to discuss their work performance and plan their training and development needs.
People were satisfied with the care provided. Everyone we spoke with expressed their satisfaction with the way the service was managed and the support provided by staff. People told us they felt safe and were treated with kindness and compassion. They also told us their dignity had been respected when staff supported them with personal care.
The care needs of people had been assessed prior to their moving into the service. Risks to people’s health and wellbeing were clearly identified and actions in place to minimise these.
People were provided with opportunities to express their views regarding the quality of the service they were provided with. People were knowledgeable of the provider’s system for receiving and responding to complaints.
The culture of the service was open, transparent and focused on the needs of people who live at Blackbourne View. Staff were supported by the manager who they described as supportive and approachable.
The manager had systems in place to carry out spot checks on staff performance and medicines audits. However, further work was needed to ensure the provider evidenced regular, quality and safety monitoring of the service. The manager told us the provider had recognised the need to improve their quality monitoring systems of their services and were in the process of developing audit tools to enable them to do this effectively. This would provide a focus more on the quality and safety of care provided in addition to the monitoring of the housing and financial side of the business.