Ideal Home

Updated 29 September 2023

The inspection

This was a targeted inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the warning notice in relation to Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) and Regulation 17 (Governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Inspection team

3 inspectors completed this inspection.

Service and service type

Ideal Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Ideal 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 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 reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Local authorities together with other agencies may have responsibility for funding people who used the service and monitoring its quality.

Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 people living at Ideal Home. In addition, we spoke with 4 staff members including carers, the registered manager and the compliance officer.

We looked at the care and support plans for 3 people and multiple medication records. In addition, we looked at several documents relating to the monitoring of the location including quality assurance audits and health and safety checks.

Updated 29 September 2023

About the service

Ideal Home is a residential care home providing personal care to 28 people at the time of the inspection. The service is registered to support up to 50 people. There are two sides to the home, one side supports older people living with dementia and the other side supports people with enduring mental health problems.

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

Some improvements had been made to the physical environment since our last inspection. However, further improvements were required to keep people safe from harm. Improvements were still needed to the provider’s infection prevention and control practices. Although some improvements had been made to the provider’s quality assurance and monitoring systems further improvements were still needed to identify and drive good care. Although people were informed about what was happening in their home they were not engaged in decisions and felt their opinions were not encouraged.

People received safe support with their medicines by staff members who had been trained and assessed as competent. People were protected from the risks of ill-treatment and abuse as staff had been trained to recognise potential signs of abuse and understood what to do if they suspected wrongdoing. People were supported by a trained and supportive staff team. The provider followed safe recruitment practices when employing new staff.

The provider had assessed the risks associated with people’s care and support. Staff members were knowledgeable about these risks and knew what to do to minimise the potential for harm.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and the provider supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests and the application of the policies and systems supported good practice. The provider supported staff in providing effective care for people through person-centred care planning, training and one-to-one supervision.

The provider had systems in place to encourage and respond to any compliments or complaints from people or those close to them. The management team had good links with the local community within which people lived. The last rated inspection rating was on display at the location and on the providers website.

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 12 November 2022). At that inspection there were breaches of regulation regarding protecting people from abuse, keeping people safe, consent, complaints and governance processes.

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. We found improvements had been made although some were still required. The service is now rated requires improvement. However, the provider remained in breach of regulations regarding keeping people safe and the overall governance.

This service had been in Special Measures since 12 November 2022. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that some improvements had 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

This inspection was carried out to follow up on actions we told the provider to take at the last rated inspection.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures (IPC) 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 the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have found evidence the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified continued breaches in relation to keeping people safe and how the service was managed.

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

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ideal 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.