Archived: Larmenier Village

Updated 1 December 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 3 November 2015 and was announced. ‘The provider was given 48 hours’ notice to ensure that the registered manager would be available to provide us with required information and answer our questions.

Due to the small size of the service the inspection was undertaken by one adult social care inspector.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service, including notifications they had made to us as required by law. We also contacted the local authority commissioning and safeguarding teams as well as the local Healthwatch service to find out their views about the service. The commissioning team told us they did not hold any information about the service as people contracted privately with Larmenier Village for their care and support.

With their permission we visited the homes of the five people who were using the service at the time of this inspection. We also spoke with the registered manager, the area manager who was visiting the service at the time of our inspection and the member of care staff on duty.

During the inspection we looked at the care records for the five people who were using the service. We also looked at a range of records relating to how the service was managed; these included three staff personnel files, training records and policies and procedures.

Updated 1 December 2015

This was an announced inspection which took place on 3 November 2015. We had previously carried out an inspection in August 2014 to check that the provider had put required improvements in place to the way staff were recruited. At that inspection we found that the provider was meeting the regulation we reviewed.

Nazareth Home Care Ltd is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting a total of five people, all of whom lived in Larmenier Retirement Village where the service is based. Larmenier Retirement Village provides people over the age of 55 with apartments and social and leisure facilities to support independent living. These facilities include communal lounge areas, restaurant, coffee shop, hairdressing salon, games and activities rooms, library, allotment, cinema, chapel and therapy room. In addition to care staff, support workers are available 24 hours every day to deal with any emergencies.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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 who used the service told us they felt safe with staff from Larmenier Village. They told us staff were caring and always supported them to make their own decisions and choices. Staff demonstrated they had a good understanding of the needs of people who used the service. They told us they would support people to maintain their independence as much as possible.

Staff had been safely recruited and there were sufficient staff available to meet people’s needs.

All staff had received training in safeguarding adults and knew of the correct action to take to protect people who used the service from the risk of abuse. There were policies and procedures on display for staff to refer to if they had any concerns about a person who used the service. Staff told us they would always report poor practice and were confident they would be listened to by the registered manager.

People told us they always received their medicines as prescribed. However we found that the policies and procedures in place for staff to follow needed to be revised. This was to help ensure that staff were provided with the correct information regarding the different levels of support they were expected to provide to people. Medication Administration Records (MAR) also needed to contain full administration instructions to help ensure people received their medicines as prescribed.

Systems were in place to assess and manage any risks people might experience. Risk assessments were also in place in relation to the general environment of the retirement village.

Staff received an induction when they started work at the service. Staff also had access to regular supervision and training to help ensure they were able to carry out their role effectively. Records showed that staff had completed training in infection control, food hygiene, safeguarding adults, Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

People who used the service received support from staff to ensure their nutritional needs were monitored. People were also able to access meals in the restaurant on the village site and told us the food provided was of good quality.

Staff told us they were able to respond to any changes in the care people wanted or needed. This was confirmed by all the people we spoke with who used the service. We saw there were systems in place to ensure people’s care records were updated when their needs changed and staff were kept informed of these changes.

There were opportunities for people who used the service to comment on the support they received. We saw all the comments were very positive in the most recent survey distributed by the service. People told us they would feel confident to raise any concerns they might have about the service they received with staff or the registered manager.

Staff told us they enjoyed working in the service and received good support from the registered manager. Regular staff meetings took place; these were used as a forum for staff to put forward any suggestions they might have to improve the service.

Quality assurance systems were in place and were used to drive forward improvements in the service.