Archived: Whorlton Grange Care Home

We found appropriate arrangements were in place in relation to the recording of medicines administered.

We saw there were enough staff on duty at all times meet people's needs.

People were asked for their consent before they received any care or treatment.

People's needs were assessed, care and treatment was planned, however, this was not always delivered in line with their individual care plans.

There were no arrangements in place to deal with foreseeable emergencies.

We looked at the arrangements for the management of medication. We saw there were no records kept of the levels of stock held. This meant the provider was unable to show us whether the amounts currently held matched expected levels. In addition, there were no audits carried out on the medications.

We looked at the staffing levels and found sometimes there was not enough staff on duty to meet the needs of people. A member of staff told us 'I don't feel people are safe with the staffing numbers, there's such a diverse combination of people living here.' The manager told us she often has to leave her managerial duties to help out as a member of the care team.

We saw the nominated individual of the care home did not carry out any monitoring audits to satisfy themselves of the quality of the service.

People were very happy with the care provided. Comments included 'The staff are very good, I always say they are hand picked' and 'The care is brilliant."

We also spoke with some relatives and friends who visited the home on the day of our inspection. They told us they were confident their relatives were safe there. Comments included 'I feel he is completely safe here", "Yes I think he's safe living here, the staff are very very nice" and 'The staff are very nice, they meet his needs'.

During our visit we looked around the building and found it to be clean and generally well maintained.

We found there were not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs. The staff rotas showed two care staff were on duty at night. We looked at care plans and found that seven people needed support from two staff. This meant during the night if staff were already supporting one person, there was a risk other people's health, safety and welfare would not be maintained.

We saw there was a detailed complaints policy in place. People said that they knew they could speak to a member of staff if they had a complaint. One person said "I would just approach the manager", another said 'I would speak to the boss, she would sort it out."