Archived: Amber Wood Care Home

We also followed up three compliance actions we issued at a previous inspection. We found that two of these had been met in full. Whilst some improvement had been made towards the third compliance action we found some areas still needed to be addressed.

Amber Wood Care Home was purpose built as a care home and the environment was laid out over four floors. Two floors had access to outside grounds and an area of garden had been designed to enable people to do some gardening. All bedrooms had en-suite facilities and assisted bathrooms and shower rooms were available on each floor.

We found a system was in place to make sure equipment used by people and staff was maintained and safe to use.

The purpose of this inspection was to follow up on the actions we took after the last inspection in November 2012. The provider sent us an action plan detailing the actions they had taken to address the shortfalls we identified.

We found improvements had been made to how people received their care and support. Care records were up to date and were personalised. Staff spoken with about the care of three people demonstrated good knowledge.

The provider had introduced new audits as part of their quality assurance systems to help with monitoring the service.

Two relatives told us they felt the service had improved and the new manager listened to their concerns and took actions where necessary. The other relative told us they had no concerns about the service and often stayed for a meal with their relative.

The six members of staff all felt the service had improved under the guidance of the new manager and now that new staff were also starting work at the home.

We spoke to six relatives and two said they had no concerns about the care of their relatives, however the other four relatives all expressed concerns to us.

We found people's care records were not being kept up to date with their current needs and care staff were not always following them. We found that some people were not having their needs met. We found there was a lack of continuity of care for people and care staff were not always allocated to work on the same floor as per their previous shift. There was lack of ongoing monitoring and daily supervision of care staff and no records of competency assessments.

The system in place for the management of people's medication was not always making sure people received their medication.

The majority of people told us they enjoyed the food provided and they had a choice at each mealtime. We found that not all people were receiving the support they required to have their nutritional needs met.

The quality assurance and ongoing monitoring that was in place was not effective in identifying the issues and concerns we found at the inspection.