Pannel Croft Village

Panel Croft Village is a community based extra care facility that was providing personal care to 36 people at the time of the inspection. People using the service lived in their own flats in a gated community in the city centre. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People were supported to receive their medicines but improvements were needed to ensure the arrangements in place were more robust. Care staff had received training in how to keep people safe and described the actions they would take when people were at risk of harm. Accidents and incidents were recorded and investigated to prevent them from happening in the future. The provider had a recruitment process in place to ensure only suitable care staff were recruited. There were enough staff to support people.

People were supported by care staff who had undertaken induction training and received on-going regular training to support people’s needs. People's nutritional needs were met. People accessed health care when needed.

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.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring. Staff were compassionate and empathetic and had built good relationships with people. People's privacy, dignity and independence were respected by staff. People’s equality and diversity needs were respected.

People's support needs were assessed regularly and planned to try to ensure they received the support they needed. People's support was individualised. People were supported to take part in social activities. The provider had a complaints process which people were aware of to share any concerns.

The provider did not have robust governance or auditing systems in place to ensure that medicine errors were learned from effectively. The provider had an improvement plan in place to further improve the quality of the care for people who lived at Panel Croft Village. Management and care staff had on-going training to ensure their learning, skills and knowledge was current to be able to support people.

Rating at last inspection

Rated good (published 23 August 2016).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Pannel Croft Village is part of an extra care housing service which can provide personal care to people. People are supported with their personal care needs to enable them to live in their own homes and promote their independence. Not everyone that lives at Pannel Croft Village receives personal care. Pannel Croft Village is a community of people that can purchase or rent their accommodation so that they can live independently but with the reassurance that there is always someone available to support them if they need support and advice.

There are facilities available in the village such as a restaurant, shops, market stalls, hairdressers and gym that can also be used by people in the community but systems are in place to prevent them from being able to access private accommodation areas.

At the time of this inspection the service supported 42 people in their own homes. People are able to receive support from other agencies if they want.

There was a registered manager at the service. 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.

People were generally happy with the care and support they received but several people felt that not having regular staff to support them meant they did not have the opportunity to develop relationships with the staff. They [people] also felt they were left not knowing which staff to expect. Some people felt that staff were sometimes rushed and didn’t stay the amount of time they were supposed to stay.

People were supported to have food and drinks to remain healthy but some people were not happy with how their food was prepared on occasions.

People were protected from harm because there were systems in place to identify and manage risks associated with their needs. Staff were able to recognise concerns of abuse and harm and knew what actions to take to keep people safe.

People and relatives felt that there were sufficient numbers of staff available that knew their needs and were able to meet all their physical and emotional needs.

Staff had been checked to ensure that they were suitable to work with people and had received training to ensure they had the skills to meet people’s needs and ensure their human right to give consent was maintained.

People were supported to have their health needs met by ensuring they received support with their medicines where needed, referral to the appropriate health care professionals and by using the services available in the village.

People received care and support from staff that were kind and caring and that maintained their privacy, dignity and independence.

People were involved in identifying their needs and arranging how they were to be supported. The service was responsive to people’s changing needs. People were continually asked for their views about whether their service could be improved. People and staff were valued members of the community and systems were in place to recognise and award them for their actions.

Effective systems were in place to manage the service and to assess, monitor and improve the quality of the service people received.

Staff were well trained in their roles and told us they felt supported by their manager.

Systems were in place to make sure that the service learned from any incidents, concerns, or complaints. This reduced the risks to people and helped the manager to continually look to improve.

We spoke with five staff and twelve people who use service during our visit.

Staff were knowledgeable and were able to describe people's risk plans to us.

Staff communication was good, with all staff confident in their roles.

People's individual health and care needs were assessed when they first came to the service.

People told us that the staff who supported them were very, very good in their roles.

Staff were respectful of people they supported, and used positive terminology on each occasion.

Feedback was complimentary and positive from the people we met. One person said, 'The staff are very nice indeed'. Another told us, 'Nothing is too much trouble for them' and 'I can't fault them'.

People knew how to make a complaint. From the care records, we saw that that any concerns were investigated is in a timely way, with actions taken where necessary.

From the care records, we saw that the service had a quality assurance system that identified issues promptly. As a result, the quality of the service was continuously improving.

We found that people were supported in making day to day decisions about the care they received. People's values and diversity were respected and promoted. One person told us that, "My carers always explain what they're doing."

The care people received was reflected in their care plans, and people told us they received care which supported their needs.

Arrangements were in place to ensure that people were protected from harm. People said that they felt safe living at the service. One person told us, "Yes, I do feel safe here." One relative told us, 'The service is wonderful, it gives me peace of mind.'

We found that staff were recruited in a safe way and correct checks were carried out to ensure their suitability to care for people.

The service carried out various audits, which meant that people who lived there could be assured of the quality of the service and the safety of equipment and premises. People told us that the service held regular residents' meetings and collected their views in other ways. People told us they were aware of how to complain and felt confident that any issues they raised would be dealt with promptly.