17 February 2016
During a routine inspection
St Paul’s Care Home is situated in the village of Waddington, close to the city of Lincoln. The home is registered to provide care for up to 22 people who require residential and nursing care support. Some of the people who live at the service may also experience memory loss associated with conditions such as dementia.
We inspected the home on 17 February 2016. There were 18 people living in the home at the time of our inspection.
At the time of our inspection the service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.
CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act, 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and to report on what we find. DoLS are in place to protect people where they do not have capacity to make decisions and where it is considered necessary to restrict their freedom in some way, usually to protect themselves. At the time of the inspection one person who used the service had their freedom restricted in order to keep them safe and the provider had acted in accordance with the MCA and DoLS.
People and their relatives were involved in planning the care and support provided by the home. Staff listened to people and understood and respected their needs. Staff also understood how to identify report and manage any concerns related to people’s safety and welfare.
Staff cared for people in a kind, friendly and respectful way. Staff reflected people’s wishes and preferences in the way they delivered care and understood how to meet each person’s individual choices, and preferences. People had been fully consulted about how their care needs should be met and about the arrangements they wanted to be made at the end of their lives.
People were supported by staff to be able to access a range of external healthcare professionals when they required any additional specialist support. People’s medicines were managed in a safe way.
People had access to a range of nutritious meals and drinks in order to keep them healthy. People were supported to enjoy a wide range of activities and pursue their personal interests. This included people living with dementia.
People and their relatives could freely express their views, opinions and any concerns to the registered manager and staff. The registered provider, the registered manager and staff listened to what people had to say and took action to resolve any issues when they were raised with them. There were clear systems in place for handling and resolving any formal complaints. The registered manager reviewed and reflected on concerns or untoward incidents and took any additional actions needed to keep developing and improving practices for the future.
Staff were appropriately recruited to ensure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people. They had received training and support to deliver a good quality of care to people. An active training programme was in place to support staff to maintain and develop their skills.
People living at the home, their family and visiting health and social care professionals were invited to comment on the quality of the services provided. Audits were in place to identify any issues with the quality of care and actions were taken to improve the service.