- Care home
The Orchard Care Home
Report from 13 June 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
The Orchard is a ‘care home’ providing personal care and support to people living with mental health and/or learning disabilities. At the time of the assessment, the service was supporting 3 people with their personal care needs. The Orchard was last rated Inadequate (published 3 August 2023). This assessment has been completed following the Care Quality Commission (CQC) new approach to assessment; Single Assessment Framework (SAF). We carried out our on-site assessment on 9 July 2024. This was an unannounced assessment, which means the provider was not told an assessment was going to be starting beforehand. We assessed a total of 3 quality statements from the safe, effective and well-led key questions. The provider was already rated ‘good’ in the responsive and caring key questions. We have not inspected these key questions, so they have remained rated good in these areas. At our last assessment, we told the provider that they were in breach of regulations 11 (consent) and 12 (safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care act. We sent them a warning notice which informs them that improvements are needed. At this assessment, the provider was still in breach of these two regulations. However, they had made some good progress before and during the assessment process. We have therefore asked the provider to complete an action plan on how they will meet these regulations. We will assess whether this action plan is effective at a future assessment.
People's experience of this service
People using the service had limited communication. They were unable to answer detailed questions about their care. We therefore assessed their experience by observing their care, speaking to staff and leaders, and reviewing documentation. We found some concerns with the care provided. While staff had good knowledge, care plans did not include enough information on people’s care needs. We also saw that the Mental Capacity Act had not been effectively used and people’s consent was not always clearly documented. These are ongoing concerns since our last assessment, however the management team started making improvements following this assessment. Other than the above, we found people had a mostly positive experience. They were supported by skilled staff who knew them well. There were enough staff and staff were recruited safely. Medicines were delivered safely. People accessed external health and social care support and staff worked well within their own staff team. People and staff had positive relationships and people were safe from abuse. The environment was managed safely and improvements had been made to water temperature and legionella risks. The service was clean and staff knew how to prevent the spread of infection. Staff spoke highly of the leadership team. There were improved audits at the service, to ensure the safety of the service was effectively overseen. The service had made considerable improvements since the last inspection, however some further improvements were still needed. The management team were receptive to feedback and began making further improvements during the assessment process.