Archived: Aitken House

Aitken House is a service that provides accommodation and care for up to 20 people who are living with a mental health condition. On the day of the inspection, there were a total of ten people living at the home, two of whom were in hospital.

There was a registered manager employed at the home. The registered manager was also the provider. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were happy living at Aitken House. They described it as their home where they felt safe, well cared for and comfortable. People were listened to by the staff and the provider and their opinion was valued.

The staff were trained to a good standard to provide care to people safely and were developing their knowledge in relation to mental health conditions. This would provide them with further skills when supporting people who were living with a mental health condition.

There were enough staff to provide support to the people who lived at Aitken House and people were able to make decisions and choices about their care and these were respected by the staff.

People were encouraged to be as independent as they wished to be and were supported to use the facilities within the community when they wanted to. They were supported by the staff to maintain good health.

People’s care needs and preferences had been assessed. However, some risks to people’s safety had not been managed well which meant they there was a risk they could experience harm. There was a risk that people would not receive their medicines when they needed them.

The home was well maintained and clean. Risks in relation to the premises were well managed. The staff were happy working for the provider and felt supported in their role.

There were a lack of systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service provided to the people who lived in the home. Some records about people’s care were inaccurate which placed them at risk of receiving incorrect care.

There were some breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations (2014). You can see what action we have told the provider to take at the back of this report.

We found that people were supported in promoting their independence and community involvement whether outside or inside of the home. Some people attended various clubs in the community and another person received music lessons in the home. People participated in reviews to assess their support requirements.

Nine of the 10 people using the service had their needs assessed and reviewed under the care programme approach. This is a particular way of assessing, planning and reviewing a person's mental health care needs which is carried out by a designated care co-ordinator. Staff we spoke with knew people well and were able to tell us how individuals needed to be supported, which we confirmed with people's care records.

There were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs. We also found that effective recruitment processes were in place.

There was a complaints procedure available for people and visitors to the home. However, this would benefit from some updating.

Following our last inspection in January 2013 we identified concerns about the provider's arrangements to ensure that people living in Aitken House were protected from abuse. Following that inspection the provider sent us an action plan that set out the improvements they intended to make. At this inspection we found that all planned improvements had been completed. We found that people who used the service were protected from the risk of abuse.

At our previous inspections in August 2012 and January 2013 we found that the arrangements for staff management to ensure that all staff were supported in their roles were inadequate. At this inspection we found that significant improvements had been made and the arrangements for staff management were more robust. This meant that staff were receiving support to enable them to undertake their roles safely and effectively.

Staff received some training but not all that they needed to ensure that they undertook their roles and responsibilities effectively. The arrangements to provide staff with supervision were inadequate and there were no arrangements in place to provide staff with appraisals.

The information available to staff about identifying and reporting potential abuse of people using the service was out of date and staff had not received any relevant training within the last year.

Some improvements had been made to how training was recorded and monitored but these arrangements required further development.