Last updated 31 May 2018
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.

This inspection visit took place on the 17 April 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection visit was carried out by two inspectors 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.

This inspection was informed by notifications we received from the service and information from members of the public, which included whistle blowing that we received after our last inspection. They pointed out some concerns about the care people received within the home .Concerns were also raised about the staffing levels within the home and the environment. We used information the provider sent us in 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 used all of this information to formulate our inspection plan.

At the inspection we gave the home manager and providers the opportunity to send us anything relevant following our inspection for us to consider. After the inspection we received a lasting power of attorney for one person, we reviewed this as part of our inspection.

We spent time observing care and support in the communal area. We observed how staff interacted with people who used the service. We spoke with eight people who used the service and three relatives. We also spoke with four members of care staff, the home manager and the registered manager who is also the nominated individual. We did this to gain people's views about the care and to check that standards of care were being met. The providers attended the meeting at the end of our inspection where we offered high level feedback.

We looked at the care records for ten people. We checked that the care they received matched the information in their records. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service, including quality checks.