Archived: Connaught House

We found that the required improvements had been made in relation to the management of people's medication. The service was now risk assessing this area of people's care and had systems in place to ensure the safe administration of people's medication. The manager had implemented a number of systems to monitor staff in this area and care plans now contained sufficient information to assist staff to safely administer medication to people.

We looked at the staff training records and found these to be up-to-date. We saw that staff had been recently trained in a number of areas.

We saw that a plan was in place to update all risk assessments in place for people using the service.

The manager was now recording all incidents which took place at the service and had notified the relevant agencies when required. There was clear guidance in place to ensure that staff knew who to notify and when.

We spoke with five members of staff working at the service and with five people who used the service as part of our inspection. People using the service were generally happy with the carers who came into their flats and delivered their care. Two of the people we spoke with said that their medication could have been administered to them more carefully. One person said: "They should really give you your medication in your hand because sometimes we forget to take them."

Staff we talked to all spoke positively about the service. They told us that they enjoyed working at the service. One staff member expressed concern that some of the care staff did not receive enough support, they told us: "I don't think the care staff and management get enough support." None of the staff we spoke with had any concerns about the care being delivered to people using the service.

We looked at the care plans in place at the service and found some detail missing in the risk assessments in place, particularly in relation to people's medication. We also found that the service had failed to notify the commission of a number of reportable incidents. Three of these involved incidents of alleged abuse.

We spoke with two members of staff working at the service whilst carrying out this review. They supplied us with the care records and medication administration record (MAR) sheets for the person using the service we were focussing on. Staff told us that they believed that the person using the service had received their medication but were not aware that the medication had been delivered to the service for a number of months.

The provider was unable to tell us how they responded to the complaint which had been sent to them. There was a complaints policy in place but this had not been followed in relation to the complaint which had been submitted to the service and no response in writing had been supplied to the complainant.

We reviewed the care and treatment records in place for the person using the service we were looking at and found inadequate records in relation to the obtaining, storage and administration of their medication.