This was an unannounced inspection which took place on 15 and 21 May 2015. At our previous visit in November 2013, we judged that the service was meeting all the regulations that we looked at.
Cherry Tree House is a service in the Merton area, providing personal care and support for three elderly people.
The service has a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 the associated Regulations about how a service is run.
Relatives of people told us they felt their family members were safe living at Cherry Tree House. The registered manager knew how to protect people if they suspected they were at risk of abuse or harm. Risks to people’s health, safety and wellbeing had been assessed and the registered manager knew how to minimise and manage identified hazards in order to keep people safe from harm or injury.
The registered manager and the owner told us they provided the care and support for the people living at Cherry Tree House together with another member of staff who works on one day each week. We found there were enough trained and supported staff to meet people’s needs. Relatives told us staff knew people’s needs well and their choices and preferences about their care.
People received their medicines as prescribed and staff knew how to manage medicines safely.
Relatives told us staff were kind and caring, and our observations and discussions with staff supported this. We saw they treated people with dignity, respect and compassion.
People had a varied and nutritious diet and choice of meals.
Staff supported people to keep healthy and well through regular monitoring of their general health and wellbeing.
People were encouraged to maintain relationships that were important to them. There were no restrictions on when people could visit the home and family members and other visitors told us they were made welcome.
People had access to their local community if they wanted to go out and could choose what they wanted to do in terms of social activities. We saw staff encouraged and supported people to be as independent as they could and wanted to be.
Care plans were in place which reflected people’s specific needs and their individual choices. Relatives of people were involved in developing and regularly reviewing their relations’ care plans and we saw people were supported to make decisions about their care and support.
People using the service and their relatives were encouraged to give feedback on the service as there was an effective complaints system in place.
Relatives said they thought the registered manager encouraged feedback and sought to develop and improve the service for people.
Staff told us they were clear about their roles and responsibilities. They had a good understanding of the ethos of the service.
Systems were in place to monitor the safety and quality of the service and to get the views of people about the service.