We carried out a review of the data available to us about St Lucy Lodge on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about St Lucy Lodge, you can give feedback on this service.
St Lucy Lodge is a residential care home providing 24 hour support and personal care to five people living with a mental health diagnosis. The service can support up to five people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People told us they were kept safe at the service and their relatives agreed. People were protected from the risks of abuse and staff knew how to report concerns. People received their medicines in a safe manner.
People had effective risk assessments to reduce risks associated with their healthcare needs. People were supported to take positive risks to ensure they lived a non-restrictive life.
People were supported by staff who had received relevant training and were supported by management. People chose what they ate and drank each day and were encouraged to have a balanced diet. People were able to make their own choices and staff supported people to do this daily.
People were supported by kind and caring staff who enjoyed working with them. People’s privacy and dignity was respected. People were not discriminated against and staff understood to treat people as individuals.
Care plans were personalised and contained people’s preferences. People were supported to attend activities of their choice and to practice their religion if they wished. We have made a recommendation about planning and recording people’s end of life care wishes.
People liked the management of the service and felt able to approach them at any time. The service had systems in place to monitor the quality of care provided and engaged with people using the service, staff and health professionals.
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.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 7 January 2017).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
St Lucy Lodge is a small family run service for people with mental health support needs. The service supports up to five people, at the time of the inspection there were four people living there. The service is registered to provide accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care.
During the inspection the registered manager was not available. 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.
People were protected from harm and abuse. There was a high level of awareness from staff and people using the service about abuse and what to do if someone was worried about themselves or somebody else in the service.
The care staff that we spoke with expressed an understanding of the scope of mental health support that people needed. We looked at training records in individual staff files and found a range of mandatory yearly training records.
Positive, caring relationships had been developed with people and staff showed that they knew the people they were supporting. People were given time to build confidence at their own pace with a long term aim to move into more independent accommodation.
There was a culture of listening to people using the service and different opportunities for people to feedback what they thought and ideas they had. The service had a complaints policy and procedure in place which outlined how people could complain and response times. People received personalised care that was responsive to their individual needs and preferences. The management and care staff involved families in support.
We saw that there was strong leadership in the care home, with motivated qualified people in management positions. There was an in depth monthly audit completed by the owner that covered the areas of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Staff had regular supervision and appraisals and the records we looked at showed there were no gaps in the frequency of these, so continuous support was in place.
We asked to speak with some relatives of people who used this service but only one person wished to give their consent. Their relative was only contacted by post and we therefore had insufficient time to make contact.
We spoke to a staff member about their experiences of having worked at this service. They told us "generally the service is very good" and "people have discussed my development with me".
We found that people who used this service were treated with respect and were involved in the planning and running of this service. Staff worked with people to best meet their needs at all times. An external professional we spoke to said "They are like a family to her" and "they look after her well."
We found that people who used this service did generally experience effective, safe and appropriate care, treatment and support that did meet their needs and protect their rights. We also found that people were kept safe from abuse or the risk of abuse.
We found that people were supported by sufficient numbers of staff who were competent and who had met their needs comprehensively.
One person told us that staff supported them with shopping and personal care and looked after their medication. They also said that staff cooked all their meals for them. This person told us, "all staff are nice."