Archived: Abba Care Home

Updated 11 November 2020

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.

This was a targeted inspection looking at the infection control and prevention measures the provider has in place. As part of CQC's response to the coronavirus pandemic we are conducting a thematic review of infection control and prevention measures in care homes.

This inspection took place on 14 October 2020 and was announced. The service was selected to take part in this thematic review which is seeking to identify examples of good practice in infection prevention and control.

Updated 11 November 2020

About the service

Abba Care Home is a residential care home that at the time of inspection was providing accommodation and personal care to five people with mental health needs. The service can support up to six people. Accommodation is provided in six single bedrooms over two floors. The home is located in a rural area near Bacup in Lancashire.

The service was a large home, bigger than most domestic style properties. There were deliberately no identifying signs, intercom, cameras, industrial bins or anything else outside to indicate it was a care home. Staff were also discouraged from wearing anything that suggested they were care staff when coming and going with people.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People told us they were well cared for and felt safe in the home. However, we found the service had not always followed safe practices in the recruitment of some staff members. We have made a recommendation about this in the 'safe' section of this report.

Although people received their medicines as prescribed, some aspects of medicines administration and storage were not always safe. We have made a recommendation about this in the 'safe' section of this report.

The interior of the home was clean and free from malodour. There was an outside area that incorporated a section with animals that people said they could safely access and enjoy.

The provider had a system to ensure staff documented any accidents or incidents which had taken place and there was learning from these incidents.

Staff had completed safeguarding training and knew the correct action to take to protect people from the risk of abuse.

Staff told us they felt well supported and received regular supervision during which they were able to discuss their professional development. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. The provider had systems to assess and monitor people’s health and nutritional needs.

People told us staff treated them with dignity and were respectful. Our observations supported these views. Staff encouraged people to be as independent as possible. People felt listened to and confident to raise any issues. We saw that where concerns had been raised, the registered manager had acted to resolve the matters.

Care plans contained information on people’s health and communication needs as well as their family background, religious needs and social interests. Activities were available for people to participate in if they wished. People and a relative were particularly complimentary around this aspect of the service

The registered manager had systems to assess and monitor the quality of the service. However, some of these did not incorporate documented input by the provider and a schedule of 'provider-led' checks is to be implemented.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 26 June 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.