Archived: Prince of Wales Road (3)

The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

We met and spoke with all eight people during our visit. People were not able to fully verbalise their views and used other methods of communication, for example pictures. We therefore spent time observing people.

People’s mental capacity had been assessed which meant care being provided by staff was in line with people’s best interest. Staff understood their role with regards to ensuring people’s human rights and legal rights were respected. Staff had completed safeguarding training and understood what constituted abuse and how to report concerns. Staff described what action they would take to protect people against harm and were confident any incidents or allegations would be fully investigated.

People’s medicines were managed safely. People received their medicines as prescribed and received them on time. Staff received training and understood what people’s medicines were for. Staff understood the importance of safe administration and management of medicines. People were supported to maintain good health through regular access to health and social care professionals, such as speech and language therapists.

People had access to healthcare professionals to make sure they received appropriate treatment to meet their health care needs such as hospital consultants. Staff acted on the information given to them by professionals to ensure people received the care they needed to remain safe.

People were relaxed and observed to be happy with the staff supporting them. Care records were detailed and personalised to meet each person’s needs. People and / or their relatives were involved as much as possible with their care records to say how they liked to be supported. People were offered choice and their preferences were respected.

People’s risks were documented and well managed. People were monitored when required to help ensure they remained safe. People lived active lives and were supported to try a range of activities, for example cinema outings and walking.

People enjoyed the meals offered and had access to snacks and drinks at any time. People were involved in planning menus, food shopping and preparing meals, and were encouraged to say if meals were not to their liking.

Staff said the registered manager and management team were supportive and approachable and worked in the home regularly. Staff talked positively about their roles. Comments included; “I love it here.”

People were protected by safe recruitment procedures. There were sufficient numbers of staff on duty to support people safely and ensure everyone had opportunities to take part in activities. Staff received an induction programme. Staff had completed training and had the right skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs.

There were effective quality assurance systems in place. Any significant events were appropriately recorded and analysed. Evaluation of incidents was used to help make improvements and keep people safe. Improvements helped to ensure positive progress was made in the delivery of care and support provided by the staff. Feedback was sought from relatives, professionals and staff to assess the quality of the service provided.

We were not able to communicate verbally with the people who were there but we observed them receiving care from staff and saw that they had a good relationship with them. They appeared to be happy and well cared for.

The relative that we met said that they were very happy with the care given at the home. They said, 'I couldn't ask for anything more.'

The staff we spoke with explained how they made sure that care was tailored to each person's needs. We saw that this was happening by looking at individuals' care plans. We also saw that the building was well maintained and adapted to meet people's needs. We reviewed staff training records and staff told us about what they had learned during training.

We spoke with the registered manager and saw that the service was being monitored regularly to ensure high standards of quality and safety.

We examined care files and saw that care plans were detailed and personalised. We saw that documents about people's care were compiled using images so that they would more easily understand what they were about.

We found that any risks that could affect people were assessed and managed, and people had positive behaviour support strategies to help them if they felt anxious, angry or upset. We also found that medication was managed safely at the home.

We found that consent was being appropriately obtained for people's care, including where they could not consent for themselves.

Systems for assessing and monitoring the quality of the service had been improved and people's opinions about their care was used to help to develop the service.

We found that procedures helped to ensure that suitable staff were recruited to work at the home.