Archived: Ranyard at Mulberry House

Updated 9 June 2015

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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection team was an inspector, two pharmacist inspectors and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before our visit we looked at information we held about the home, including notifications about events the registered person is required to tell is about.

While we were at the home we spoke with ten people, two relatives and eight staff, including members of the care, nursing and management teams. We spoke with the GP and the local authority commissioner of the service. We looked at 23 medicines administration records and five care records. We also looked at three staff files and other records concerned with complaints, accidents and incidents, and health and safety records. We undertook general observations of how people were treated by staff and how they received their care and support throughout the service. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI) during lunchtime. SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. After the inspection we spoke with two specialist nurses.

Updated 9 June 2015

Ranyard at Mulberry House provides nursing care for up to 48 older people, some of whom have dementia. When we visited the home there were 32 people living there. Ranyard at Mulberry House was last inspected on 7 August 2014 when we found the service was not meeting the regulations in relation to people’s medicines, maintaining equipment, supporting workers, and meeting the needs of people who had unintentional weight loss. We asked for improvements to be made.

This inspection took place on 10, 11 and 18 March 2015 and was unannounced. We found improvements had been made to the way the home managed people’s medicines and people received their medicines safely as prescribed. Equipment was maintained and was safe to use. Staff received regular supervision and appraisals of their work to ensure they had the skills to support people appropriately. Staff assessed people’s nutritional needs and gave people effective support to eat and drink safely.

Ranyard at Mulberry House is required to have a registered manager. 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.

At the time of this inspection there was not a registered manager in place. The previous post holder had left the home in January 2015. Recruitment to the post was underway at the time of the inspection and an appointment was made. The deputy manager was providing day to day management of the home. Representatives from the provider were supporting her in the role.

People received care and support in a safe way. Risks associated with people’s conditions and care needs were considered and managed.

The provider had issued copies of the safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures to staff and ensured they understood the action to take in response to concerns about people’s safety. Training in these topics was arranged for April and May 2015.

There was an adequate number of staff to provide safe care for people. People had the opportunity to see health professionals when they needed to and staff acted on their advice. People were treated with kindness, patience and respect.

People and their relatives knew how to make a complaint. The deputy manager Investigated complaints thoroughly and sent people a response to their complaints.

Although a training plan had been developed it did not include some topics essential to provide care for people living at the home, including caring for people with dementia.

The views of people were not always obtained when planning the menus and activities and some people were dissatisfied with the meals and the activity programme. The cultural and religious needs of people were not always considered and met. The views of people were not always used to improve the service they received.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.