About the service Abbey House is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 37 people. The service provides support to older people, some of whom are living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 36 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People receive safe care, and staff we spoke with understood safeguarding procedures.
Risk assessments were in place to manage risks within people’s lives. Staff were confident in supporting people in this area.
Staff recruitment procedures ensured that appropriate pre-employment checks were carried out, and staffing support matched the level of assessed needs within the service during our inspection.
Medicines were stored and administered safely, staff were trained to support people effectively and were supervised well and felt confident in their roles.
People were able to choose the food and drink they wanted, and staff encouraged healthy options. Any requirements with food and drink were understood and respected by staff.
Healthcare needs were met, and people had regular access to health and social care professionals as required.
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.
The management team was open and honest, and worked in partnership with outside agencies to improve people’s support when required.
Audits of the service were completed and any issues found were addressed promptly. The service had a registered manager in place, and staff felt well supported by them.
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 27 April 2018)
Why we inspected
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
We received concerns in relation to how people were being kept safe from harm, and staffing levels. There were incidents that had occurred within the service that we were notified about, and as a result, we inspected to gain further assurances that the incidents were being dealt with appropriately. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Abbey House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.