Cedars Care Home

Updated 29 June 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors, one expert by experience and one research intern who was working at CQC on a placement as part of a post graduate degree course. The intern worked alongside our 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. Our expert had experience of caring for older people.

Service and service type:

Cedars Care Home is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (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 inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

Prior to our inspection, we reviewed information we held about the service. We checked statutory notifications we had received from the provider. Statutory notifications are reports of important events that providers are required by law to tell us about. We also reviewed information sent to us in the provider information return (PIR). A PIR is a document which providers are required to send us, detailing key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During our inspection, we spoke with five people who used the service and four relatives. We also spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, activities coordinator, training and quality coordinator, operations manager and three members of staff.

We looked at various information held at the service, including three care plans, staff training, two of the most recent staff employment files, compliments and complaints and a variety of other tools used to monitor the quality of the service.

Updated 29 June 2019

About the service: Cedars Care Home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 48 people, some of whom may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection, 45 people were living at the service. The service was delivered in a purpose-built building with a large accessible garden and set in a residential area with easy access to the local community.

People’s experience of using this service:

A holistic approach was taken to assessing, planning and delivering care and support, ensuring people's individual care needs and preferences were met. Some aspects of the responsiveness of the service in meeting people's individual care needs were outstanding.

Importance was placed on people’s well-being and a range of group and individualised activities were available to people, both within the home and the local community. Staff had a good understanding of people's needs and were imaginative in the way they provided person centred care which placed people at the heart of the service. They continue to find creative ways of supporting people to have an exceptional enriched quality of life.

There were enough staff available to ensure people's wellbeing, safety and security was protected. Robust recruitment processes were in place to ensure prospective new staff had the right skills and were suitable to work with people living in the home.

People and their relatives felt safe. Staff had received safeguarding adults from abuse training and knew how to act on any concerns. Risk assessments were in place to manage potential risks within people's lives, whilst also promoting their independence. People’s medicines were managed safely. Incidents and accidents were investigated, and actions taken to prevent recurrence. Effective infection control processes were in place.

Newly appointed staff received an induction to the service. Staff received on-going training, supervision and observations of their practice to ensure they continued to have the skills and knowledge to be competent in their role, and support people safely and effectively.

Staff created a homely environment and treated people with dignity and respect. People were encouraged to be independent.

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 supports this practice. Where people had been deprived of their liberty, appropriate referrals had been made to the local authority.

People were supported to have enough to eat and drink. The service worked well with other health care professionals to ensure people’s health needs were met.

People and relatives were encouraged to be involved in the running of the service. People knew how to raise a complaint and felt confident any issues would be addressed. Where there had been incidents or complaints, these had been responded to appropriately and the provider had systems to monitor and learn from these.

People spoke positively about the management at the service and we saw there was a clear structure in place to ensure staff were supported. There were a variety of checks in place to monitor the quality of the service and drive improvements.

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 24 December 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection, based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service and will return to carry out an inspection in line with re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk