Archived: St Margaret's

Updated 31 March 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

This inspection took place on 27 November 2014. The visit was unannounced. The inspection team included a specialist professional advisor in dementia and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed the information we had about the service. This included notifications sent to us by the provider.

There were 28 people using the service at the time of our visit. We spoke with 13 people who were using the service, six relatives, and interviewed the manager and nine other staff members. We also spoke with five health and social care professionals after the inspection.

We looked at 11 people’s care records, seven staff files, duty rosters, accident and incident records, selected policies and procedures and 12 medicine administration records.

Updated 31 March 2015

This inspection took place on 27 November 2014. It was unannounced, which meant nobody at the service was told in advance of the inspection.

St Margaret’s is a residential care home owned and managed by the London Borough of Camden and situated in Barnet. The home provides accommodation for up to 44 older people. There were five units across two floors, however one unit was closed at the time of this inspection. At the time of our visit there were 28 people living at the home.

There was no registered manager in post at the time of our visit, however a new manager had started in the week of our inspection, and was applying to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, registered managers 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.

We last inspected St Margaret’s in May 2014. At that inspection we found the service was meeting all the essential standards that we assessed.

At the current inspection people living at the home, their relatives and health and social care professionals gave us positive feedback about the home. However we found that people did not have a choice of food at mealtimes and some people did not have the support they needed to eat.

There were appropriate arrangements in place to keep people safe from the risk of abuse. Staff had training on abuse awareness and the provider responded appropriately to allegations of abuse. Systems were in place to ensure the home environment was maintained safely and medicines were administered appropriately.

Sufficient staff were available to meet people’s needs. Staff were appropriately qualified and trained to meet people’s needs. The service had a care assessment and planning process that recognised people’s individual needs and preferences. People’s individual risk assessments were up to date, and people were consulted about the care provided to them to ensure that this was sufficient. People’s ability to make decisions about their lives was assessed to ensure they had support when needed. Applications had been made for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards when needed to ensure that they were protected from being deprived of their liberty unlawfully.

We observed many positive staff interactions and clear communication between staff and people living at the home. The service had a complaints procedure that was accessed by people at the service. They were confident that appropriate action would be taken to resolve any issues raised.

We found that people’s health care needs were addressed. The provider’s had a system in place for assessing and monitoring the quality of services, with actions planned including support for staff and people living at the home over the forthcoming changes.

At this inspection there was one breach of regulations relating to food provision within the home. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.