Updated 8 August 2019
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was undertaken by one Inspector, one Assistant Inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type
Alexander Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
The first day of this inspection was unannounced.
What we did before the inspection
We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service including notifications the provider had sent to us. We contacted the local authority safeguarding and local commissioning teams to obtain their views about the service. We contacted Healthwatch for any feedback they had received. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. All this information was used to identify key lines of enquiry as part of the inspection.
During the inspection-
During the inspection we looked at four people's care records which included a wide range of support plans and risk assessments. We reviewed a range of documents relating to how the service was managed including; four staff personnel files, staff training records, policies, procedures and quality assurance audits.
We spoke with five people who used the service and six relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 10 members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager, team leader, care workers, night care workers, the activity coordinator, laundry assistant and chef. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.