Meadow Walk

Meadow Walk is an extra care housing scheme for older people, comprising of individual flats in one large building. The scheme has some communal areas, and an onsite restaurant. People who lived at the service had a separate care and tenancy agreement. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 25 people with personal care.

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

Risks had not been assessed consistently placing people at risk of harm. Whilst people were supported by kind and caring staff, we received feedback that people did not always feel safe with the staffing levels, particularly overnight.

The provider's governance arrangements did not provide assurance the service was consistently well led. The systems and processes to oversee the quality assurance of the service were not robust and effective, as they had not identified the shortfalls we found during our inspection and regulatory requirements were not always being met.

Risk was not consistently and safely managed. Some relatives felt communication was not always effective between themselves and the management team at Meadow Walk.

Safeguarding concerns were reported to the local authority; however, improvements were needed to ensure these were always reported to CQC. Effective systems were in place to prevent and control the spread of infection.

People and their relatives told us permanent staff knew them well and were caring, kind and respectful.

Staff understood the importance of gaining consent from people and ensured people's privacy and dignity was respected. 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.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 13 May 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection to check whether the provider was meeting legal requirements and regulations, and to provide a rating for the service as directed by the Care Act 2014.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.