Archived: Weavers Care Home

The Weavers Care Home is a residential home which provides care and accommodation for older people, and people who live with dementia. The home provides care for a maximum of 28 people. At the time of our visit there were 27 people who lived at the home.

The service had 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 our previous inspection in October 2014, we found the home had not sent us the notifications of deaths, and incidents and accidents they were required to. We also found that people who did not have capacity and who had been deprived of their liberty had not been authorised to do so by the local authority. This meant the home had breached the regulations. Since our last inspection visit, the registered manager ensured we had been notified as required, and had taken the necessary action to request authorisation of people’s deprivation of liberty from the local authority.

Staff and people understood safeguarding policies and procedures. Staff followed people’s individual risk assessments to ensure they minimised any identified risks to people’s health and social care.

Checks were mostly carried out prior to staff starting work at the service to reduce the risk of employing unsuitable staff. There were enough staff on duty to keep people safe, and staff had received suitable training to help them meet people’s needs effectively.

Medicines were mostly administered safely to people, and people had good access to health care professionals when required.

People enjoyed activities within the home, and were supported to take part in hobbies or activities that interested them such as going out to the pub, knitting, singing and arts and crafts.

People received care and support which was tailored to their individual needs. They could choose their meals and enjoyed the food provided, and where needed, were given good support to eat and drink.

Staff were motivated to work with people who lived at The Weavers Care Home. People and staff enjoyed good relationships with each other which were supportive, friendly, and caring.

The registered manager and provider were open and accessible to both people and staff. There were sufficient informal and formal monitoring systems to ensure quality of service was maintained. Some of the formal systems had not been carried out but this had not compromised the quality of care provided.

People and their relatives knew how to complain, although there had been no formal complaints since 2013.

The report from the provider showed us that a number of measures had been put in place.

They showed us a revised audit form they had put in place. This included a highlighted check on the signing and dating of all medication returns.

They also included details of a revised medication procedure clarifying how medications were to be ordered, checked and returns made.

The report also included a record of discussion with the pharmacy service. This showed Weavers Care Home had communicated the need for proper audit procedures to other parties involved in the process. This included positive comments from the pharmacy service about procedures and records of Weavers Care Home.

We spoke with the member of staff responsible for medication on 23 August 2013 by telephone. They were able to detail confirm the new audit procedures and confirm that they were ensuring that medication returns were recorded properly.

People in the home and relatives who visited were very complimentary about the home. 'People are very happy here", ' Staff care about them', 'Excellent' and 'People are well looked after' were among the things people told us.

We observed interactions in the home and looked at a sample of care records. We saw staff being attentive to needs and showing a good awareness of people's needs and wishes. We saw lots of activities taking place with the support of three activities staff. One relative told us 'lots of different activities take place ' people join in or may enjoy watching.'

One relative told us that the manager was 'accommodating' and 'approachable.'

We also looked at how the home administered and recorded medication. Although this was generally well managed, the home did not satisfactorily demonstrate that it disposed of unused medication properly.