We looked at the medication records at the home and spoke with staff. We were able to see the measures the registered manager had put in place to monitor and check the medication records.
We spoke with five members of staff who demonstrated a good understanding of people's needs. This was also observed in the way they provided support to the people and the way they described individual's likes, dislikes and interests. We spoke to the relative of a person living at the home. They were generally happy with the care their family member received and said: "XX always appears to be happy here." They also commented on the epilepsy training that staff received which they felt was very good.
We looked at the management of medicines at the home. Medicines were stored safely however we had some concerns about the systems in place to record and monitor medication.
This inspection followed up on an area of non compliance relating to the number of staff available to meet people's needs. This had been identified at our last inspection in January 2013. The provider had made changes to the staff rota which had increased staff numbers at certain times of the day to meet people's needs.
We looked at staff rotas for December 2012. These showed that out of 31 days only 11 were staffed to the level identified by the service as required to meet people's care needs.
During our visit we spoke with six staff who confirmed that they had taken part in supervision. They told us that the service had also initiated meetings called support worker support sessions. These meetings gave support staff the opportunity to discuss, with senior staff, their work and the needs of the people they were key worker for. One member of staff told us that: 'I have had a few supervisions; I was able to discuss general work issues, any problems and my goals.'
During our inspection we used the Short Observational Framework for inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of those people who could not talk with us. During our visit, we observed that generally staff interacted and communicated with people in an appropriate and respectful manner.