Merstone House

Updated 3 August 2022

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Merstone House 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 we looked at both during this inspection.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Inspection activity started on 23 May 2022 and ended on 01 June 2022. We visited the service location on 23 May 2022.

We spoke with three people who lived at the service to understand their experience of living at the home. We spoke with four members of staff including the registered manager a senior support worker and two support workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three peoples care records and multiple medication records. We looked at staff recruitment arrangements and viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service. This included the providers policies and procedures.

Updated 3 August 2022

About the service

Merstone House is a residential care home providing personal care to up to eight people. The service provides support to older people and younger adults with who have mental health diagnoses. At the time of our inspection there were eight people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were supported safely by staff who knew them well. People were protected from the risk of abuse by staff who had received training about safeguarding and who understood how to report any concerns. Infection control procedures and measures were in place to protect the people from risks associated with COVID-19.

Staff had received medicine training and their competence was assessed to ensure they were following safe medicine practices. Staff were recruited safely, and pre-employment checks were completed to make sure they were of good character.

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 registered manager was accessible and approachable. The culture of the service was open and inclusive. People and staff felt supported by the leadership within the service. Quality monitoring and governance was effective, and people's views were used to make changes and improvements.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was good (published 14 March 2019).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe 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 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.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.