Updated 15 February 2019
The inspection:
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider was 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.
Inspection team:
This inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type:
Tamar House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the registered provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
This inspection was announced. We gave the registered manager a short period of notice because people who live there were often out of the house engaging in occupational or leisure activities. We wanted to be sure they were offered the opportunity to participate in the inspection.
What we did:
Before the inspection, the registered 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. The registered provider returned the PIR and we took this into account when we made our judgements in this report. We reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications. These are events that happen in the service that the registered provider is required to tell us about. We considered the last inspection report and information that had been sent to us by other agencies. We also had contact with commissioners who had a contract with the registered provider.
During the inspection visit, we spoke with eight people who lived in the home and observed how staff interacted with them. We spoke with two relatives, two staff members, the registered manager and the area manager. Following the inspection visit we also spoke with the registered provider’s nominated individual. Throughout the report we refer to this person as the registered provider’s representative.
We looked at the care records for three people and we undertook a tour of the premises with a person who lived there and the registered manager. We also looked at records in relation to the management of the home such as quality assurance checks, staff training records, safeguarding information and accidents and incident information.