Updated 29 June 2015
This inspection took place over two days, 5 and 8 December 2014. The inspection was unannounced. The last inspection of this service took place in September 2014. There were no breaches of regulation identified at this inspection. A further inspection took place as the Care Quality Commission had received some information which needed to be investigated. This information was particularly regarding the processes within the home for obtaining medicines in a timely way and involving health care professionals external to the home in a timely manner to support people’s health and care..
Highroyd Care Home provides residential care for up to 19 older people. Nursing care is not provided. Accommodation is provided over two floors, the first floor accessed by a stair lift. At the time of our visit there were 17 people living at the home.
The registered manager has been at the home for a number of years. 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 who used the service and relatives told us they liked the staff and found them helpful, kind and caring. People said the meals at the home were good but we felt closer monitoring of people’s nutritional needs was needed.
We found staff knew people well and were able to give a good account of the support people needed. However, care records lacked some of the information staff would need to support people appropriately.
There was no activities organiser in post although the registered manager was in the process of recruiting one. We did not see people being engaged in meaningful activities and two people told us they missed this.
Relatives told us they were made to feel welcome when they visited. Two visitors told us they didn’t see much of the registered manager but knew they could approach staff if they had any concerns.
We found people’s safety was being compromised in some areas. The medication system was not well managed and posed a potential risk to people. A lack of robust care records could also have resulted in people not being cared for safely. Staff had been recruited safely and knew what to do if they felt something was happening that was not in someone’s best interests. Staff received training appropriate to their needs.
We found there were some audits in place to monitor the quality of the service but the registered manager acknowledged there had been some slippage in the conducting of these audits .
The home has the Gold Service Framework award for their work in planning end of life care.
We found some breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.