Ladymead Care Home

Ladymead is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care in an adapted building. At the time of the inspection 31 people aged 65 and over were living at the service. The service can support up to 40 people.

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

People living at Ladymead received safe care from skilled and knowledgeable staff. Staff knew how to identify and report any concerns. The provider had safe recruitment and selection processes in place which incorporated their values of ‘Together we respect, with compassion we care, through commitment we achieve’.

Risks to people's safety and well-being were managed through a risk management process. Peoples care plans provided staff with the information they needed to manage the identified risks.

Recruitment checks were robust to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable adults and staffing arrangements met people's needs. There were sufficient staff deployed to meet people's needs.

Medicines were managed safely, and people received their medicines as prescribed. Staff had the necessary skills to carry out their roles. Staff had regular training and opportunities for regular supervision and observations of their work performance.

People and relatives told us staff were caring. Staff did all they could to promote people’s independence and we saw examples of this. People had access to other healthcare services, ensuring a holistic level of support was provided.

The registered manager and staff demonstrated a commitment to people and displayed strong person-centred values. 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. Staff had a particularly good understanding of when the principles of the Mental Capacity Act should be applied. People were supported to meet their nutritional needs and complimented the food at the home.

The home was well-led by a long-standing registered manager who was committed to improving people’s quality of life. They and the new provider had plans to continuously improve people's care. The service had a clear and stable management and staffing structure in place and staff worked well as a team. The provider had effective quality assurance systems in place that they used to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Staff worked well with external social and health care professionals.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 14 February 2018.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

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 until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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

We found the following examples of good practice.

There was an emphasis on recognising people’s wellbeing during the lockdown. The provider introduced an assessment tool used to monitor people and a potential impact the pandemic might have on them. Regular communication, for example, bulletins or newsletters took place with people’s relatives and we received numerous compliments from families of people living at the service.

There was a safe system to manage visitors, infection control procedures were explained to visitors on arrival, they were asked to complete a declaration form and record temperatures taken at the time. People’s visitors were provided the appropriate PPE as required. A visiting ‘pod’ was introduced that allowed for safe visits to take place in a Covid-19 secure environment, other visits such as where people received End of Life care were carefully risk assessed to protect people. This included using Covid-19 lateral flow tests (LFT). LFT are the tests that give an instant result.

Staff ensured people were able to stay in touch with their families using technology, such as video calls. We received numerous compliments from people’s relatives praising the team for how they cared for people during the pandemic and kept the families informed.

The provider followed a safe system to ensure new admissions were only allowed after a confirmed negative result of the Covid-19 test was received. The registered manager was aware of zoning and isolation arrangements and these would be followed if people were Covid-19 suspected or confirmed.

Staff received training and followed correct infection control and using personal protective equipment (PPE) processes. The provider ensured a sufficient stock of appropriate PPE and there were designated notice boards available to remind staff about correct guidelines and handwashing.

Both the people living at the service and staff had regular tests for Covid-19, the registered manager informed us the process of vaccinating people and staff for Covid-19 had started.

The service was clean and fresh, staff carried out a number of additional tasks, such as cleaning of any regular touchpoint surfaces. Regular infection control audits took place and actions followed up when required.

The provider offered support to aid the wellbeing of the team, individual assessments had been carried out with staff members to ensure any individual circumstances or health conditions were known and the support could be offered as needed.

The registered manager reported good support from the local health professionals and the team at the provider’s head office.