The Avenue Care Home

Updated 1 April 2022

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.

As part of CQC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic we are looking at how services manage infection control and visiting arrangements. This was a targeted inspection looking at the infection prevention and control measures the provider had in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 25 February 2022 and was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Updated 1 April 2022

About the service

The Avenue Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to 23 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. One person was in hospital at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 24 people.

The Avenue Care Home accommodates people in one adapted building over two floors.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Staff were not always recruited safely; employment history was only recorded for the previous 10 years.

Some people’s care and support plans did not always contain all the detail required to support them in the best way. The provider was aware of this and was in the process of reviewing and updating all care plans.

Some medicines were not always recorded as being given. The registered manager took immediate steps to rectify this.

People told us there were enough staff to meet their needs and documents demonstrated this. There was good planning and provision of meaningful activities for people.

Staff had good access to supervision, training and team meetings and told us they worked together as a team.

There was a redecoration programme in place and ongoing improvements were being made to the environment.

People were supported by staff who were kind, compassionate and caring and who understood their likes, dislikes and preferences. People were happy living at The Avenue Care Home and told us they felt safe. They were positive about the food and were supported to access health care professionals to maintain their health and wellbeing.

The provider had effective governance systems in place to identify concerns in the service and drive improvement.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The provider was responsive to our feedback and took immediate action to make improvements in the service.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 21 August 2018) and there were two breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found enough improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.