Updated 27 April 2019
The inspection:
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.
Service and service type:
Freehold Cottage is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The care home is a detached property which accommodates up to six adults with mental illness.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and people were often out accessing the community. We needed to be sure people who lived in the home and staff would be available to speak with us.
What we did:
Before the inspection:
Our inspection plan took into account information the provider had sent to us including the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also considered information about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse or serious injuries.
We requested information from the Lancashire County Council contract management team and infection prevention team as well as Healthwatch Lancashire. Healthwatch Lancashire is an independent organisation which ensures that people’s views and experiences are heard by those who run, plan and regulate health and social care services in Lancashire.
We used all the information gathered to plan our inspection.
During the inspection:
We were only able to speak in depth with one person who lived in the home. However, we also spoke more generally with a further three people. We also spoke with the registered manager, the service manager, two support workers and two visiting healthcare professionals.
We reviewed the care and medicines records for two people who lived in the home, three staff personnel files, audits and other records about the management of the service.
We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection, including the staff training matrix and the policy relating to the provider's duty of candour. This evidence was received and the information was used as part of our inspection.