Archived: Summerfield Care Home

There was a registered manager in the home. 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 last inspection the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

Why the service is rated Good:

People continued to receive safe care. Staff were knowledgeable about how to keep people safe from harm. Risks to people's safety were assessed and management plans used to reduce risks where practicable. There were enough staff to keep people safe and meet their needs. Medicines were managed safely by staff who had received appropriate training and had their skills monitored. Staff were aware of and had practiced emergency procedures.

People continued to receive effective care. Staff were competent to carry out their roles effectively and received training that supported them to do so. People were supported to eat a choice of freshly prepared meals which they told us they enjoyed. They were supported with special diets if they were required and had frequent snacks and drinks offered to them. People were also supported to maintain their health and wellbeing and advice was sought from healthcare professionals when necessary.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible, the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service remained caring. Staff were kind, considerate and compassionate in the way they delivered support to people. They encouraged people to maintain independence appropriately. People’s privacy and dignity were seen as a priority and staff supported and spoke of people in a respectful manner. People's relatives and visitors were welcomed into the home whenever they

wished to visit.

The service remained responsive. People received person centred care which focussed on their individual needs and wishes. People had access to activities which supported their well-being and staff responded to their needs in a timely way. People were comfortable to raise concerns and speak with the registered manager if they wished.

The service remained well-led. There was good leadership in place and the staff team worked well together. There were systems in place to assess, monitor and analyse the service in order to make improvements. Links were maintained with the local community to provide support to people living at Summerfield Care Home.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We found that people were offered a varied and balanced menu and were helped to eat and drink enough to keep them as healthy as possible. People told us that the food 'was very good'. They said, 'you can have what you want and as much as you want, it's lovely.'

We found that people were prescribed medication by their doctor which was given to them safely and at the correct times. We saw that the medicines in the home were stored in locked cabinets or cupboards.

The home had a robust recruitment process to ensure staff were suitable and safe to work with the people who lived in the home. People told us that the staff were, 'wonderful'. Relatives described staff as 'kind, friendly and most helpful'.

We found that the home had ways of looking at the care they offered so that they could make sure they maintained and improved it. They listened to the views of the people who lived in the home. People told us that they had 'absolutely nothing to complain about'.

We looked at how the provider ensured people's care was being planned and managed effectively, and whether people were happy with the quality of care they were receiving. We found that people were very happy with their care, and that an effective care planning process was in place.

We looked at the safety and suitability of the premises and found that the owner, who was an ex-builder, took an active role in keeping the home in a good state of repair.

We looked at staffing levels and found that whilst there were enough staff to cover all the rotas this appeared to at the expense of staff appraisals because the manager was doing quite a 'hands-on' role.

We looked at how staff were supported and found that whilst staff had received proper induction, training and supervision, there was a backlog in staff appraisals.

We looked at how the provider assessed and monitored the quality of the service and found this was being carried out on a regular basis.