Aspen Manor Care Home

Aspen Manor Care Home is a purpose built care home providing nursing and personal care for up to 78 people with a range of needs. Accommodation is provided over three floors and people are able to access various communal areas including lounges, dining rooms and a cinema room. At the time of our inspection, there were 36 people using the service.

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

People did not always have the support they needed to mitigate known risks. For example, records and evidence showed people were not always supported to have enough to drink or to change their position in line with their assessed needs to maintain skin integrity.

People were at risk of poor care and support because governance systems were not effective and needed strengthening. Although audits were taking place they had failed to identify and address the issues we found during our inspection, in relation to poor care monitoring and recording, care planning, medicines and infection prevention and control.

Improvements were needed to ensure people's medicines records were stored and recorded accurately. Improvements were needed to ensure staff consistently followed safe working practices to protect people from the risk of infections.

Staff were safely recruited. Staff did not feel confident contingency plans were implemented effectively to ensure there were always sufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people's needs.

Improvements were needed to ensure people were fully supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People, relatives and staff were positive about the registered manager.

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 14 June 2023).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part by notification of an incident following which a person using the service sustained a serious injury. This incident is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any regulatory action should be taken. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident. However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the management of risks for people. This inspection examined those risks. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

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

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.

Aspen Manor Care Home is purpose built for the service it provides. The home has 3 floors. At the time of our inspection only 2 floors were in use.

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

People were safe. Staff knew how to protect people from abuse and avoidable harm. Medicines administration was safe. The protocols for managing incidents that occurred at the service were safe and used as a tool to improve the service. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs in a timely manner.

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.

Staff had the skills and experience to provide care and support to people. They provided proactive support with health monitoring and referred people to healthcare services when required. People had access to a variety of meals, drinks and snacks.

People were cared for by kind and compassionate staff. They treated people with dignity and respect. Staff supported people to remain as independent as possible and to be involved in decisions about their care.

The care people received was tailored to their individual needs. People were supported to maintain links with their loved ones and wider community. They had access to a variety of social activities which mitigated the risk of social isolation. Complaints were dealt with satisfactorily.

The service was well-led. People, their relatives and staff could easily give feedback on the service and managers acted on their feedback. Managers were competent, supportive and met required regulatory responsibilities. There were systems to monitor and improve the quality of care delivered.

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 29 October 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

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

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.