Wheaton Aston Care Home

At our last inspection we found that improvements were needed regarding staffing levels. During this inspection we found significant improvements had been made and have und the evidence

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

Staff treated people with the dignity and respect when supporting them.

Staff ensured people received care which was kind and compassionate. People had developed relationships with other people living there and staff. Staff spent time chatting with people and saw this as a part of their role.

People received personalised care and support specific for their needs and individual preferences. Staff saw people as individuals and supported them in a person-centred way. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were encouraged to socialise, and keep in touch with people who were important to them. All staff were involved in ensuring people were involved in activities that interested them if they wished to be and knew that activities had a positive impact on their wellbeing.

The management team provided strong leadership and staff were clear about the values of the service and had a positive person-centred attitude.

People, relatives and staff were positive about the service. Relatives spoke kindly of the registered manager and their staff.

People felt safe and staff demonstrated a good understanding of what constituted abuse and how to report if concerns were raised. Risks were managed in as least restrictive ways as possible to protect people’s freedom. People’s rights were protected because the service followed the appropriate legal processes. Medicines were safely managed on people’s behalf where needed.

There were safe staff recruitment and selection processes in place. People were involved in recruiting new staff into the service. Staffing levels were flexible to meet people’s individual needs. Staff received training and regular supervision and support to keep their skills up to date in order to support people appropriately.

There were opportunities for people and people that matter to them to raise issues, concerns and feedback compliments.

Quality monitoring was in place leading to continuous improvement. Regular resident meetings were held to ensure people’s opinions were listened to and actions taken.

The management team strived to provide the best possible service for people. Various methods were used to assess the quality and safety of the service people received and changes and improvements were made in response.

This report only covers our findings in relation to this issue.

We last inspected Wheaton Aston Care Home on 31 January and 2 February 2017. At this inspection we rated them as “requires improvement” overall. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Wheaton Aston Court Care Home from our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Wheaton Aston Court Care Home provided nursing and personal care for up to 36 people some of whom were living with dementia. At the time of this inspection 30 People were living there.

There was a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider.

People, relatives and staff told us that staffing levels at Wheaton Aston Care Home were sufficient to meet people’s needs safely and care was delivered in a way people wanted.

Staffing rotas indicated that staffing levels were consistently maintained.

The provider and registered manager utilised a dependency tool to identify each person’s dependency needs, which then enabled the service to calculate the numbers of care staff required to safely support them.

The registered manager and provider had looked at people’s experiences of nights and made changes to improve the quality of care they received.

The service did not have a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection, however, an application had been submitted to CQC by the manager in post. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We found that although sufficient staff were working at the service during the day time, there had not been sufficient staff working on the night shift to meet people's needs. We found that the dependency tool used by the service had calculated that more staff were required and staff and people using the service told us that there were insufficient staff on the night shifts. We discussed this with the manager during our inspection and staff numbers were increased during the course of our inspection.

There were a range of activities which took place at the service. There were activities to meet people's individual needs and activities had been arranged in response to people's feedback. However, we found that people had also told the management that they would like some trips out and we found that these had not been on offer for people prior to our inspection. We were informed by the manager during the course of our inspection that a trip had been arranged for people and that these would be on-going.

People felt safe at the service and risks associated with their care delivery had been assessed and planned for. Staff knew how to protect vulnerable people from abuse. People's medicines were safely managed and staff had been safely recruited.

People could choose how they spent their time and were offered a choice of nutritious food and drink.

The principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) were being followed. Mental capacity assessments had been carried out when people may have lacked the capacity to make decisions about their care and treatment. Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) had been applied for where needed to ensure that people's rights and liberties were being protected.

Staff were kind and caring and people were given the opportunity to be involved in their care.

The service was managed well. Staff felt supported and were positive about the changes that the manager had implemented since taking up their post. Staff performance was monitored and staff were able to raise issues and concerns should they need to.

The quality of people's care was assessed and monitored and there were charts in place for people who may have been at risk of malnutrition or of pressure sores. These charts were regularly checked to ensure people's safety.

The manager notified the relevant agencies when incidents occurred at the service and accidents and incidents were logged and action taken to reduce the risk of them re-occurring.