• Care Home
  • Care home

Archived: Graceland Care Home

Belmangate, Guisborough, Cleveland, TS14 7BD (01287) 639351

Provided and run by:
Gracelands

All Inspections

10 October 2013

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We observed the experiences of people who used the service. We saw that staff interacted and communicated well with people. We found that the atmosphere in the home was friendly and relaxed.

We spoke with the clinical lead, the director of care, the human resources manager and a staff nurse. We discussed consent and how people are assisted to make choices. Before people received any care or treatment they were asked for their consent and the provider acted in accordance with their wishes.

We saw that people had their needs assessed and that care plans were in place.

We found that records did not always include detailed information about peoples care and treatment.

21 April 2013

During a routine inspection

We spoke with three people living at Graceland's and the relatives of four people. People who used the service expressed satisfaction with the care and service that they received. One person told us, 'The staff are very good and are very kind.' One of the relatives we spoke to told us,' The staff have been very good I cannot say enough to praise them.'

We spoke with six of the staff on duty and the operational director. Some of the people had difficulty expressing their views about the service, so we spent time during the visit observing how their care was delivered. We observed staff interacting well with people and supporting them, which had a positive impact on their wellbeing. People's views were taken into account in the assessment and care planning process.

We found that suitable arrangements were not in place for obtaining consent and that staff did not have a clear understanding of the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

We found that appropriate systems were in place to ensure the safe use and management of medicines.

We found there were appropriate arrangements in place to ensure a suitable skill mix and adequate staffing levels.

We found that systems were in place to deal with comments and complaints.

8 August 2012

During an inspection in response to concerns

We inspected the service because concerns had been raised by a family member that staff did not meet peoples' care needs and the home was not providing adequate food and fluids. Therefore when we spoke with people who used the service and visitors we focused on these aspects of the care provided by the home. We spoke with three people and two relatives and they told us that the care was exceptionally good. They found that staff were always at hand and understood how to provide the necessary care to meet their needs. People said 'I'd rate the service as 100%, it is tip top', 'The staff are always courteous and go out of their way to make sure I'm alright' and 'I used to visit homes so know what to look for and I have never been let down in my choice of this home. I cannot sing their praises enough. Staff provide an exceptional service'.

Relatives told us that the range and quality of food was ample and people were constantly offered food and fluid. They said 'The cook is excellent and always baking cakes, biscuits and making snacks. In fact she will do anything to make sure people have enough to eat. Some of the people go off their food and I have seen that staff never stop trying to encourage people to eat and drink'; 'The staff always make sure people have enough to drink. I find that drinks are constantly flowing and they take the time to make a tray of tea for us when I visit' and 'Staff seem to be constantly checking people have had enough to drink and eat. Nothing is ever a problem and if someone hasn't eaten I have seen staff offer them different foods at different times of the day'.

Other people that use the service were not able to tell us about their experiences due to their clinical condition. To help us to understand the experiences these people had, we used our SOFI (Short Observational Framework for Inspection) tool. The SOFI tool allows us to spend time watching what is going on in a service and helps us to record how people spend their time, the type of support they get and whether they have positive experiences.

From our observations, we found that overall care staff worked in ways that supported the people and treated individuals with humanity as well as empathy. We saw that staff constantly made sure people had sufficient to eat and drink. On the downstairs unit they needed to be a little more organised over the lunch in terms of deciding who would assist people to eat the meal. However, people were offered alternatives if they did not like the option; everybody was given the opportunity to have second portions and they all had at least three drinks. We saw that staff were respectful of the people who used the service; valued their comments; consistenly involved people in discussions; and always sought their views.

10 April 2012

During an inspection in response to concerns

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who may be unable to communicate verbally due to their cognitive ability. We carried out these observations in both lounges of the home during the afternoon.

We saw that people were provided with care in a supportive and caring manner. This included support given with drinks and snacks. However, we saw that some people had to wait for assistance during lunch, which meant that their lunch could have been cold by the time they were supported to eat it.

We heard one member of staff say "Come on get your dinner"; we heard no response from the individual. This was then followed by "Oh don't then". When making this response the staff member was heard to speak in an abrupt manner and their approach did not follow best practice for supporting people with dementia care needs. We shared this with the owners during feedback.

We could see that some people were asked to join in a game of bingo and we observed one lady being asked to read a book, however not all people we observed were offered the same level of social stimulation and we did not see many sensory items such as pictures or books, which limited the range of meaningful activity for people.

We found that almost all of the interactions between staff and people living at the home were positive. However some people experienced more interactions than others.

4 November 2010

During an inspection in response to concerns

' Care records include the views and wishes of individuals or their representatives where they are unable to express their views.

' Staff were respectful in their approach to supporting people. For example: they made sure that they explained to people how they were going to support them.