Arden House Residential Care Home

Updated 15 May 2021

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. This was a focussed inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Warning Notices in relation to Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Arden House Residential Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we reviewed the information, we held about the service and the service provider. We looked at their action plan provided following the inspection in November 2020. We sought feedback from the local authority and healthcare professionals that are involved with the service. We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

During the inspection visit, we looked around the premises and spoke with eight people who used the service. We spoke with six members of staff including the provider. The two deputy managers also came in to speak with us. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records, medicine records, two staff files and the agency folder in relation to recruitment and further records relating to the quality assurance of the service, including feedback surveys and accident and incident records.

After the inspection

We received feedback from a GP who worked with the home, two social workers and contacted two relatives for their comments about the service.

Updated 15 May 2021

Arden House Residential Care Home is a care home and accommodates up to 30 people. The service supports a wide range of people who need support. This includes, people who live with dementia, mental health disorders, general frailty and addiction to alcohol. At the time of our inspection there were 14 people living at the service.

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

Following the previous inspection, the provider sent us their action plans to improve the care delivery at Arden House Residential Home. This included information about the steps they had taken to make improvements at the home including working with external professionals and consultants to develop and improve the home.

Quality assurance systems had been introduced and continued to be developed and improved. This included audits of medicines, falls, infection control and the environment. Changes had been made to people’s care plans, risk assessments and daily record keeping, and this was ongoing. The provider and staff team had worked hard to address the areas for improvement following the last inspection. Further time was needed to fully embed these changes into day to day practice.

The provider and staff worked hard to improve and ensure that appropriate infection control procedures for the pandemic were in place to keep people safe. This included increased cleaning schedules and cleaning, and adequate PPE was available with hand gel. Staff had completed training in relation to COVID-19 and testing for both people and staff was in line with current government guidance.

People were protected from the risks of harm, abuse or discrimination because staff knew what actions to take if they identified concerns. There were enough staff working to provide the support people needed. Recruitment procedures ensured only suitable staff worked at the service. Staff understood the risks associated with the people they supported. Risk assessments provided some guidance for staff about individual and environmental risks. People received their medicines safely.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was Inadequate (published 03 November 2020). There were three breaches of regulation. We served a warning notice in relation to the Safe care and treatment of people, and requirement notices for Safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment and Good Governance and told the provider to make these improvements. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the warning notice was met.

This service has been in Special Measures since 03 November 2020. The provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced inspection of this service on 22 October 2020. Breaches of legal requirements were found. We issued a warning notice to the provider about Safe care and treatment and requirement notices for Safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment and Good Governance. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Arden House Residential Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.