Oakdene

Updated 10 December 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: This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type: Oakdene is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means 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: The inspection was unannounced.

What we did: We looked at information we held about the service to help us plan the inspection. This included written notifications the provider had sent to us about any important events that happened at the service and the Provider Information Return (PIR) of August 2019. This is information we ask the provider to send us, usually at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make. We also contacted local care commissioners who contract for people’s care at the service along with an external health professional and a social care professional concerned with people’s mental health care at the service.

During this inspection we spoke with 11 people receiving care at the service and an external social care professional. We also spoke five care staff, including two seniors; a domestic and a cook, the registered manager, an external senior manager for the provider. We reviewed six people’s care records to check whether they were accurately maintained and checked a range of records relating to the management of the service. This included staffing, medicines and complaints records and areas of care policy. We also looked at the provider’s arrangements to check the quality and safety of people’s care.

After the inspection visit: We requested further information from the provider. This was provided within the requested timeframe. We also spoke with the registered manger by telephone to further check some of our inspection findings with them.

Updated 10 December 2019

About the service

Oakdene is residential care home providing personal care for up to 40 adults living with enduring mental health needs. This may include people who are subject to specified provisions of the Mental Health Act in order to live at the service; and people who may abuse drugs and alcohol. At this inspection, there were 39 adults receiving care at the service. This included 3 female adults.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People’s individual choice and control was not fully promoted in relation to communal living arrangements, or to maximise opportunities for people’s mental health support and life goal planning.

Improvements were made and ongoing to ensure people’s care plans were individualised; to inform their care needs, preferred daily routines and lifestyle interests. People were mostly happy with their care and daily living arrangements and knew how to make a complaint or raise a concern if they needed to.

The provider was meeting the accessible information standard for people. The service is not a primary care provider for end of life care. Systems were in place to enable people’s related support, wishes and decision making.

Arrangements for the prevention and control of infection helped to protect people from the risk of an acquired health infection. Safeguarding, staffing, medicines and risk management arrangements helped to protect them from the risk of harm or abuse. The provider acted to ensure people’s safety when things went wrong at the service and to prevent any reoccurrence.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People received effective care from staff who were trained and supported to ensure this. Staff supported people to maintain and improve their health and nutrition through timely consultation and information sharing with relevant external health and social care professionals, when needed.

People were happy with their environment, which was kept clean, generally well maintained and equipped. Improvements were assured from people’s expressed views in relation to lighting levels and wifi access.

People received care from staff who treated them with respect and ensured their dignity and rights. People were supported to express their views and involved in making decisions about their care.

Improvement was made to ensure effective monitoring of the quality and safety of people’s care. Management and staff understood their role and responsibilities for people’s care. Operational management arrangements were sufficient to ensure effective communication, partnership working and information handling for people’s care.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published September 2018) with one breach of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made. The provider was therefore no longer in breach of regulation.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.