Updated 19 June 2019
The inspection:
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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
We had been made aware of a serious safeguarding incident that had occurred at the service a week before the inspection. This incident was still subject to a police investigation and we followed it up during this inspection to see what action the provider had taken in response to it.
Inspection team: This consisted of one inspector.
Service and service type: Leonora House provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. People have a tenancy agreement and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service. At the time of the inspection all 25 people were supported or prompted with personal care.
It is a condition of the provider’s registration to have a registered manager in post. This is to make sure they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The registered manager had recently left at the time of the inspection. The provider had recruited a branch manager who was scheduled to start at the beginning of June 2019. We were told the branch manager would be submitting their registered manager application by the end of the month.
Notice of inspection: We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice because the location provided extra care housing and we needed to be sure that people would be available to speak with us.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as allegations of abuse. We reviewed their provider information return (PIR). Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.
During the inspection we reviewed five people’s care records, five staff recruitment, training and supervision records, samples of staff rotas, complaints and safeguarding investigations and audits and records related to the management of the service.
We met and had brief conversations with 11 people and spoke with three of them in more detail. We also spoke with three relatives, one during and two after the inspection. We spoke with 11 staff members. This included the deputy manager, the assistant director, a service manager, the quality assurance officer, the activity and volunteer manager, a senior support worker and five support workers.
Some people living at the service were not fully able to tell us their views and experiences so we carried out a number of observations during the inspection.
After the site visit, we spoke with two health and social care professionals who worked with people using the service for their views.