Archived: Amy Woodgate

We undertook this unannounced inspection on 27 and 29 October 2015. At our previous inspection on 15 and 30 January 2014 the service was meeting the regulations inspected.

Amy Woodgate provides residential care and support for people who are living with dementia. The care home can support up to 44 people, including two respite placements, across four units. Coombe Unit was a male only unit for up to four people. The Lodge provided support to up to 12 people who were assessed as being more independent. Richmond and Malden provided support to up to 14 people on each unit. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 41 people.

A registered manager was in post. 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.

There were sufficient staff to keep people safe. Staff received regular training and supervision to ensure they had the knowledge and skills to meet people’s needs. Staff felt well supported by the management team and their views and opinions were listened to.

Staff were aware of the risks to people’s safety and supported people appropriately to manage those risks. This included supporting people to minimise the risk of choking, falling and developing pressure ulcers. Staff supported people to manage their health needs and arranged for health care professionals to visit them when required. Staff supported people with their nutritional needs and food and drink was provided throughout the day. Medicines were managed safely and people received their medicines as prescribed.

Care plans detailed what tasks people were able to do independently and where they required support from staff. Staff were knowledgeable about people’s individual needs, their preferences and their likes. Staff supported people in line with their preferences and used the knowledge they obtained through conversations with people and their family to provide an individually tailored service.

Staff were aware of who had the capacity to make decisions about their care. Staff supported people in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. ‘Best interests’ meeting were held when people did not have the capacity to make decisions themselves. The majority of people did not have the capacity to make decisions about their safety and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) were in place. DoLS is a way of making sure that people are only deprived of their liberty in a safe and correct way, when it is in their best interests and there is no other way to look after them.

People, and their families, were supported to make decisions about end of life care. People were supported to stay at the service if that was where they wished to spend their final hours, and one to one staffing was provided to support the person and their family.

Staff supported people to engage in activities they enjoyed. This included supporting people to undertake tasks relevant to previous employment. The staff had identified people who may benefit from additional support and arranged for them to access creative therapies, including art therapy and drama therapy. The service linked with a local school to provide additional opportunities for people to engage in activities and socialise.

The service learnt from previous mistakes and staff were supported to improve the quality of care they provided. This included learning from previous medicines errors. Staff were supported and encouraged to implement changes at the service to improve practice. This included the development of duty sheets to enable staff to provide a personalised service.

The service implemented national initiatives to review the quality of their service and provide an individually tailored service. This included ‘dementia care mapping’ and the Eden Alternative principles. The principles of the Eden Alternative helped staff to empower people and to deliver timely, individualised care.

The service was creative and implemented their own initiatives including the development of a reminiscence room, a shop and a beach hut. The service had received the Mayor’s award for their shop. The Mayor’s Award recognises the contribution made by individuals or groups which improves the lives of the local population.

The registered manager ensured a safe environment was provided by undertaking regular safety checks and ensuring any maintenance required was addressed. Equipment was regularly checked to ensure it was safe to use with people. The environment was adapted to meet the needs of people with dementia.