Archived: The Lawns Nursing Home

During our inspection we did not ask people their views instead we observed how people were cared for, and talked with people's relatives and with staff. We observed that people's appearances had improved. All were wearing clean clothes, which had been colour co-ordinated.

We talked with four relatives all told us they were satisfied and thought people were 'well cared for'.

A relative who visited the home regularly said their relative's appearance was consistently good. The person had been very particular about how they looked and the relative was pleased that the staff took the trouble to make sure the persons clothing was colour coordinated and that they were smartly dressed.

Relatives told us that people were treated with 'kindness' and staff were like an 'extended family'.

There was a new manager who had commenced work on the 16 January 2012. Staff told us the manager was approachable and they felt confident the manager would respond to any issues or concerns they raised.

Overall, where we had made compliance actions we found improvements had been made and new systems had been put in place to ensure these were maintained. However these systems had not had the opportunity to become embedded, therefore we will be monitoring the home to ensure these improvements are maintained and the home remains compliant in these outcomes.

However during our inspection we were also able to identify other areas where the home was not compliant with the essential standards of quality and safety. We have therefore required the home to make further improvements in these outcomes.

We were unable to talk with some people living at The Lawns due to their illness. So we observed how they interacted with the staff to see what choices the staff enabled them to make and we talked to their relatives and friends who visited them.

Relatives told us they were "satisfied" with the care provided, and they described the attitude of the staff as "caring" and "homely".

We observed the agency staff were respectful and maintained people's dignity and appeared to be confident when carrying out their work.

Although people's relatives made positive comments about the staff, we were able to identify some concerns about the care, cleanliness and quality monitoring of the home.

When we visited there was a new manager who had commenced working on the 16 January 2011. We found they had already identified some of the areas of concern we found during our visit to the home and had taken some actions to resolve them.

Relatives told us they were 'satisfied' with the care provided, and they described the attitude of the staff as 'caring' and 'homely'. Staff were 'always helpful' and appeared to be confident when carrying out their work.

Relatives and staff provided us with a mixed response about whether there were sufficient staff to meet peoples' needs, relatives comments were "there sometimes seems to be not enough staff' and staff told us it depend on the level of support people need and if someone is unsettled.

Relatives told us they were always kept informed and felt confident in approaching the staff and management if they had any concerns

We were able to observe staff interacting in a positive and pleasant way; staff approached people in a calm, polite and respectful manner. People were seen to be comfortable when approaching staff to make their needs known. However we also observed staff were not always enabling people to make choices about their daily lives, such as their lunchtime meal and drinks.