CareTech Community Services Limited - 196 High Street Also known as Hunters Lodge

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture.At our last assessment we rated this key question inadequate.

At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulation in relation to governance.

Improvements were found at this assessment and the provider was no longer in breach of this regulation.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

There had been significant improvements to the culture of the home, and this was evident by feedback from staff. The registered manager spoke about the importance of having good staff who understood how to engage with people and ensure they were engaged in activities and events throughout the week and not just during some specific shifts.

People and their relatives spoke well of the management team, one relative said, "The registered manager is good - she is finding her feet, and she need time to get it up and running and we will see the impact she has everyone's best interests." Staff also spoke very positively about the registered manager, comments included, " The registered manager is good, and they have good communication with staff.”

There were appropriate systems to support staff, and others, to speak up when they had concerns. Staff and the registered manager described the measures they had in place to support staff to speak up and raise concerns if they had them.

The provider valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them. Staff described a culturally diverse workforce who were supportive and respectful of each other. Staff told us how they cooked cultural dishes and shared it with people and staff as it was an important aspect of their culture.

Our previous inspection found the provider did not always have effective procedures for monitoring the service, there had been improvements however people’s care was not always personalised as there was a lack of activities The provider did not always effectively operate processes to monitor and improve the quality of the service. For example, there was ineffective process in place to audit people’s finances and this meant people were at the risk of abuse. Whilst audits had been carried out, they did not identify this until a significant length of time had lapsed.

Medicines were not always administered safely as staff were not always following the providers policy. The registered manager took prompt action to address the issue found.

The registered manager was working with senior staff to change how care plans were developed, and we could see these changes were becoming embedded. Notwithstanding the above, there had been significant improvements at the home since the last inspection. It was also evident that the registered manager was committed to driving ongoing change to the home.

The registered manager was proactive in developing local partnerships. People had recently been attending a local drumming session which all family members and staff spoke positively about. The registered manager and staff worked with healthcare professionals and commissioners to ensure people’s needs were met and improve their outcomes.

There was a learning culture at the home which focused on ensuring staff had the necessary skills to care for people.The registered manager and senior staff were completing their National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) and both staff spoke very positively about this. Staff told us they received regular support from the managers through supervision and an annual appraisal.