Oakview Residential Care Home

Oakview Residential Care Home is a residential care home in the Gatley area of Stockport and can accommodate 12 people. The service has a communal lounge and dining room and a secure outside garden. There are 10 bedrooms, of which 2 can accommodate 2 people. The service provides support to older adults and adults living with dementia and/or other complex needs. At the time of our inspection there were 7 people using the service.

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

People felt safe and systems to assess, monitor and manage risk were in place and being used. There were plans for redecorating areas of the home and people were involved in determining what improvements and changes were made. Staff were suitably recruited and there were enough staff to meet people’s needs quickly. Medicines were being safely stored and people were receiving their medicines as prescribed.

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. However, effective records in this area were not always being maintained and we have made a recommendation about this.

People’s needs were assessed and reviewed, with care plans in place to guide staff on how to support people. Staff felt well supported and completed a wide variety of training. Staff worked closely with other health care services to ensure people’s needs were met and appropriate referrals to external services were made.

People told us staff were very kind and caring. We observed staff knew people well and there were positive relationships. People were encouraged to remain independent. and staff respected people’s privacy and decisions. People and their relatives felt involved in decision making.

People felt they had choice and control over their care and that care provided was personalised to their needs. People’s communication needs were assessed, and measures implemented to ensure people could access the information they needed. Staff supported people to engage in activities within the service and took people out into the local community. People and families felt able to raise concerns and confident these would be addressed. Relatives who had family who had received end of life care at the service spoke highly of the care given.

People and families spoke highly of the management team and staff. There were various ways in which people were supported to feedback about the service and any information was used to improve care. The management team understood the duty of candour and worked closely with other services to ensure people’s needs were met.

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 good (published 22 October 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation that the provider review their processes to ensure records demonstrate that they are meeting the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

At our last inspection in October 2016 we found two breaches of regulations relating to the safe management of medicines and a lack of robust audit procedures. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the service was now meeting these requirements.

Oakview is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Oakview is a residential care home in the Gatley area of Stockport and can accommodate 12 people. The home has a communal lounge overlooking the enclosed rear garden and a dining room. There are four bedrooms on the ground floor and six bedrooms on the first floor. Two of the bedrooms can accommodate two people.

People told us they felt safe living in the home and staff demonstrated they understood how to keep people safe and how they should report any concerns about people living in the home.

Risks to people were assessed and their care records explained how people needed to be supported in order for them to do the things they wanted, in the way they wanted, in the safest way possible.

Staff had time to spend with people living in the home and supported them in an unhurried way. Rotas confirmed the staffing levels we observed were normal for the home.

Medicines were stored safely and people were supported appropriately to ensure they received them as they had been prescribed. Documentation was audited regularly to ensure people were receiving their medicines safely.

People’s needs were assessed and detailed care plans were in place explaining about people’s needs and choices. This enabled staff to support people in the way the person preferred.

Staff told us they felt very supported by the management in the home and had regular training and supervisions. Records we looked at confirmed that regular training and supervisions took place.

Meals were cooked freshly in the home’s kitchen and people told us they enjoyed the food. A variety of food was available for people to suit their cultural preferences.

Visiting healthcare professionals spoke highly of the home and told us staff in the home worked closely with them to ensure people living there were cared for well. Professionals visiting the home were encouraged to make suggestions to improve the care people received.

People living in the home were involved in choosing the décor and had recently chosen new wallpaper, carpets and curtains for the lounge. People were encouraged to personalise their bedrooms.

Consent was always sought from people before they were supported and where people lacked the capacity to give consent, procedures were in place to ensure they were supported in line with their best interests. People were encouraged to make choices about their care and we saw their choices were respected by staff.

People living in the home knew the staff well and told us they supported them in a very caring and compassionate way. Staff were very good at treating people as individuals and we observed staff supporting people in different ways according to the person’s preferences.

A range of activities were available for people to take part in within the home, in the local community and in other homes owned by the provider.

People told us they hadn’t needed to complain but if they did have any concerns they could speak to any member of staff and were confident their concerns would be listened to and addressed.

The home had a registered manager in post. The registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.

People told us the management team were very approachable and encouraged them to make suggestions to improve the home and their suggestions were acted on.

Oakview is a residential care home and can accommodate 12 older people who may have dementia care or mental health needs. Located in the Gatley area of Stockport, the home has a communal lounge overlooking the enclosed rear garden and a dining room. There are four bedrooms on the ground floor and six bedrooms on the first floor, two of which have ensuite shower room facilities. There is no passenger lift between floors, although there is a stair lift. There is limited off road parking.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.

At this inspection we identified two breaches of the regulations of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) 2014. One breach was in relation to; the safe management of medicines and the second breach was in relation to lack of robust quality audit processes being in place. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of this report. We made three recommendations, one in relation to fitting a privacy lock and privacy blind in one bathroom area to maintain the privacy and dignity of people using this facility, one to update the Statement of Purpose with the correct Regulation details and one to ensure all new staff that have not previously worked in a social care setting are enrolled to complete the Care Certificate induction training.

Friends and relatives of people who used the service spoke highly of the quality of service and the caring nature of the staff.

The staff personnel files we looked at showed us that safe and appropriate recruitment and selection practices were taking place and that staff were receiving training that was appropriate to support the job role they were employed to carry out.

People felt safe and had no concerns about their safety or wellbeing. Staff told us, and records seen confirmed that they had received training in safeguarding vulnerable adults and were knowledgeable about recognising the signs of abuse and how to report and deal with them.

Care plans and associated documentation were person centred and provided staff the details needed in order to provide effective support in accordance with the person’s needs and preferences.

Staff were observed to be kind and considerate with people and also responded to requests for assistance quickly and in a sensitive manner. We also saw staff treat people and their visitors with respect and dignity and provide privacy when needed.

Staff, people using the service and their relatives and friends were provided with opportunities to give feedback of the service being delivered and potential improvements that could be made.

There were seven people living at Oakview Residential Care Home at the time of this inspection. We spoke with four people who used the service and staff who were working there. We looked around the building and checked records of care. We found that Oakview Residential Care Home was now compliant with the relevant regulations.

People spoken with told us they were happy with the care and support they received at the home. They told us they were happy with their care.

We spoke with a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) who told us that the staff were managing people's specific needs very well.

We saw people resting in the communal area of the home and in their own room. We saw staff asking people about the way they wanted their care to be delivered. We observed staff treating people in a kind and respectful manner.

We looked at the care records of three people and found these had been updated and reviewed to reflect their identified needs, conditions and circumstances.

We found that improvements had been made to address the shortfalls associated with records in the home.

We we found that improvements had been made in some areas such as infection control, safeguarding vulnerable adults and quality assurance. However records management still required improvement.

We spoke with four people who lived at the home. Two people spoken with told us they were happy with the care and support they received at the home. They told us: 'They're very nice to us here' and 'They look after me and see that I get what I need." We observed staff treating people in a kind and respectful manner.

We looked at the care records of five people who used the service. We noted shortfalls in records presented a risk that people might not receive safe effective care, treatment and support that met their needs and protected their rights.

During the inspection we saw people were not involved in meaningful activities and were seen to be sitting in the home's communal lounge and in their own room. One person told us they would like more to do during the day and said: 'There's nothing much to do here. Sometimes I read, but nothing else.'

We looked at the records in the home and found that they were not to an acceptable standard. They were lacking in the detail recorded and one care plan was absent from the care records.

We spoke with three people who used the service and three staff members as well as the provider during the course of our inspection. We also contacted three relatives of people who lived at the home to gain their views, all of which were positive in respect of the care provided.

Limited information was obtained from some people using the service due to communication difficulties. In light of this, we used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We saw that people responded positively to staff interactions and observed staff to be friendly and supportive to the people who lived there. The people we spoke with told us they had no concerns about the staff and were happy living at the home.