Archived: Camborne Lodge

We carried out an inspection of Camborne Lodge on 20 and 22 April 2015. The first day of the inspection was unannounced. We last inspected Camborne Lodge on 9 April 2013 and found the service was meeting the relevant regulations in force at that time.

Camborne Lodge provides accommodation and personal care for up to eight people. Accommodation is provided over three floors in eight single bedrooms. Access between the floors is by stairs only. At the time of the inspection there were seven people accommodated in the home.

The service had a registered manager in post, although they had recently been promoted. A ‘service manager’ was in day to day charge of the service and was to commence the process of registration. 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.

People told us they felt safe and were well cared for in the home. Staff knew about safeguarding vulnerable adults. The one alert we received in 2014 had been dealt with appropriately, which helped to keep people safe.

We noted the environment and equipment were safely maintained and staff were safely recruited. We found the arrangements for managing people’s medicines were safe. We found records and appropriate processes were in place for the storage, receipt, administration and disposal of medicines.

As Camborne Lodge is registered as a care home, CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and to report on what we find. We found policies and procedures were in place to assess people’s capacity and to identify if decisions had to be taken on behalf of a person in their best interests. However, we identified daily restrictions placed on one person had not been subject to a DoLS authorisation. In addition, behaviour management strategies were based on imposing sanctions rather than taking a positive behavioural support approach.

Staff had completed relevant training for their role and they felt they were well supported by the management team. Training included on-line first aid awareness training, although this did not include practical exercises and practice of basic life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Recruitment and selection procedures were robust and all necessary checks had been carried out before new staff were confirmed in employment.

Staff were aware of people’s nutritional needs and made sure they supported people to have a healthy diet, with choices of a good variety of food and drinks. People’s health needs were identified and staff worked with other professionals to ensure these were addressed.

People had opportunities to participate in a variety of activities and we observed staff interacting positively with people. Everyone spoken with told us the staff were kind and caring. We saw staff were respectful and made sure people’s privacy and dignity were maintained.

Staff understood the needs of people and we saw care plans were highly person centred. People and their relatives spoke positively about the home and the care they or their relatives received.

People, their relatives and staff spoken with had confidence in the service manager and felt the home had good leadership. We found there were effective systems to assess and monitor the quality of the service, which included feedback from people living in the home.

We found breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, relating to consent and control. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.