Archived: The Everley Residential Care Home

Updated 31 March 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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 26 November 2014 and was unannounced. An inspector carried out this visit with the assistance of an Expert by Experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During our inspection we looked at all the communal areas of the building including individual

bedrooms, with people’s permission. We observed people in the communal areas of the home and whilst they had lunch. We observed the registered provider handling medication and discussing people’s care with staff on duty. We looked at records. This included two people’s care records. Records relating to the management of the service including; medication administration records, fire checks, staff rotas, two staff training supervision and appraisal records and the complaints file.

We spoke with the registered provider who undertook the day to day management of the home and to one member of staff on duty during our visit. There were no relatives visiting the home and we did not gain any response to our request to gain feedback about the service from visiting healthcare professionals.

We received information from Healthwatch. They are an independent body who hold key information about the local views and experiences of people receiving care. CQC has a statutory duty to work with Healthwatch to take account of their views and to consider any concerns that may have been raised with them about this service. We also contacted the Local Authority to find out their views of this service. Neither organisation raised any concerns about this registered provider.

Updated 31 March 2015

The Everley Residential Care Home is a small residential home on the outskirts of Scarborough. It provides accommodation for up to five older people. Four people were living at the home on the day of our inspection. The front door was secure to prevent unauthorised people gaining access to the home. All bedrooms were personalised and one bedroom had an en suite bathroom.

At our last inspection on 13 August 2013 the registered provider was found to be compliant with the regulations.

We observed staff interacting with people in the communal areas of the home. We saw people were treated as individuals and with dignity and respect. Staff were knowledgeable about people’s likes, dislikes, preferences and care needs. They approached people using a calm, friendly manner which people responded to positively.

Staff received training to ensure people’s rights were respected and they were safeguarded from abuse. We saw that some people living at the home appeared to have problems remembering things. Staff we spoke with told us how they encouraged and supported people to make decisions for themselves, which helped people to live the life they chose.

Staff were able to describe the different types of abuse that may occur and said they would report any issues straight away. Staff told us how any issues would be reported to the local authority for them to be considered under their safeguarding of vulnerable adults procedures. This helped to protect people.

People had care plans and risk assessments in place. These were about to be reviewed and rewritten for everyone at the home to make them more personalised.

The medication storage cupboard required a new lock to be fitted to ensure people living at the home could not gain access to medication being stored.

People were offered appropriate food and drinks to maintain their nutrition. Those who required some prompting were assisted by patient and attentive staff which ensured people’s nutritional needs were being met.

Activities provided at the home were mainly spontaneous. Staff were seen to sit and spend time with people to give them emotional support and comfort. They reminisced with people about their life. Entertainers visited the home to provide music and chair aerobics.

We observed there were enough staff on duty to meet people’s needs on the day of our inspection. Staff told us there were enough staff provided to take care of people. The staff carried out the cooking, cleaning and laundry duties in the home between providing care to people. Staffing levels provided at the home were flexible to ensure people’s needs could be met.

We found that the registered provider placed the emphasis on providing good care to people, However, they agreed audits of the service, recording of supervisions for staff and reviewing and updating people’s care records had not taken place in a timely way.

We have made some recommendations in this report to help to improve some issues that we found with the safety of the environment, medication recording and auditing of the quality of service provided.