Meadowcroft Residential Care Home

Updated 9 February 2024

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert By Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Meadowcroft Residential Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Meadowcroft Residential Care Home is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 7 people who used the service and 3 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We also spoke with 5 staff, including the registered manager, senior care, and care staff. We looked at a range of records including 4 peoples care plans and 4 peoples medicines administration records. We also looked at a range of management records including 3 staff recruitment files, training records and quality audits.

Updated 9 February 2024

About the service

Meadowcroft Residential Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 17 people. The service provides support to younger people and older people, some of who may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 15 people using the service.

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

Systems were not effective in ensuring medicines administration was completed effectively. Medicines stock was not always accurate, and medicines were not always stored safely.

People were safe living at the service, staff understood how to keep people safe from the risk of abuse. Where people were at risk, assessments had been completed and staff were aware of the management plans in place to keep people safe. There were enough staff to support people safely and recruitment had been completed following safe procedures. Infection prevention control procedures were in place and when things went wrong there was a process in place to learn from these incidents.

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 and their relatives were involved in the service and there were processes in place to ensure staff received support. The provider had systems in place to learn and improve the service and they worked in partnership with other agencies. People were supported by staff who understood their needs and the atmosphere at the home was calm and people were happy.

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

Rating at last inspection.

The last rating for this service was good (published 7 December 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to governance arrangements for medicines administration 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.