Archived: The Gables Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has remained requires improvement. This meant people did not consistently receive good outcomes.

The service was in breach of legal regulations in relation to how people were not supported in a person-centred way, the governance of the service and in relation to consent.

This service scored 46 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People and their relatives felt they had not been involved in developing their/their loved one’s care plan. Most people said they hadn’t seen their care plan, though one relative said, “I have seen it, but I haven’t reviewed it.” Care records were not always as person centred as the could be, as covered throughout this report, which meant we could not always be confident how people’s needs were being assessed/reviewed/monitored. Staff told us they read peoples care plans to ensure they understand people’s needs. People had various assessments in place.

People’s dietary requirements were not always appropriately recorded, one person’s dietary requirement was contradictory in their care plan. The kitchen had food preference records for people that no longer lived at the home. When we asked the chef if there was a list of people’s food requirements, they were not able to provide this, however they were able to tell us who required a specific diet.

In the kitchen we found bottles of sauces and some pre made food items in the fridge that had been opened and not dated, meaning we could not be confident these sauces and foods were within date. We found necessary or appropriate healthcare referrals were not always being appropriately made.

People said they received enough to eat. One person said, “I like the food, and we get plenty of it.”

We saw evidence of handover records, though these were not always being read by staff as indicated by the electronic care planning system. We saw evidence of the manager and provider working with other services to try and make necessary improvements, though the necessary improvements were not always being made.

People felt they got the support they needed. People told us that staff would contact the Doctor or appropriate healthcare professional if needed, though we found this was not always the case.

Staff said they communicated well with each other to ensure they work well together. One staff member said, “We all work well together.” Health professionals felt they received a good handover of information. Hospital passports were in place, which held relevant information for each person. These are documents that are sent with a person if they need prolong external support, for example, if a person was sent to hospital. These documents help to ensure the hospital was aware of (and could meet) people's needs on admission.

People had access to healthcare support when they needed it, though as mentioned earlier, appropriate referrals were not always made. Staff spoke about how they support people to live healthier lives. One staff member said, “It is very relaxed here, there are only 11 (people living at this service) and some people are independent. Those that are independent go out for walks, for people that can’t we do chair exercises or play soft ball.”

People’s care plans had recently been reviewed, though this did not always effectively identify the issues we found in peoples care plans. People were being monitored for pressure care where needed, and appropriate assessment tools for skin and nutrition were used to monitor people’s health and wellbeing, but necessary actions were not always being taken where concerns were identified as mentioned throughout this report regarding appropriate referrals not always being made.

People and their relatives provided mixed feedback on peoples quality of life, comments included, “I think I have good life here, I miss my own home, but I have settled in ok and made friends.” One relative said, “I don’t think she has a quality of life she sometimes says she wants to go, but the home does their best for her.”

Consent forms were not always in place for various aspects of people’s daily life. People we spoke to said staff gained consent before providing care. Staff understood consent, one staff member said they “Always ask for consent first before personal care.”