Archived: Randolph House Care Home

Updated 17 April 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the registered provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 1 and 2 December 2014 and was unannounced. The inspection was led by an adult social care inspector who was accompanied by specialist professional advisor (SPA). The SPA had experience of working with people who were living with dementia.

We spoke with the local safeguarding team and the local authority contracts and commissioning team before the inspection, to ask them for their views on the service and whether they had investigated any concerns. They told us they had no current concerns about the service.

We used a number of different methods to help us understand the experiences of the people who used the service. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI) in two communal areas. SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experiences of people who could not talk with us. We spoke with the registered manager, regional manager, dementia support manager, two senior carers, six carers, six people who used the service and four relatives.

We looked at eight care plans belonging to people who used the service and their medication administration records (MARs). We reviewed a range of documentation relating to the management of the service including staff training records, staff rotas, four recruitment records, meeting minutes, quality assurance audits and records of equipment maintenance.

Updated 17 April 2015

We undertook this unannounced inspection on the 1 and 2 December 2014. The last inspection took place on 30 August 2013 and the service was complaint in all the regulations we assessed.

Randolph House provides residential and nursing care for up to 70 older people. Accommodation is provided over two floors and there is a unit on the first floor that provides specific care for people living with dementia. The bedrooms are for single occupancy and there are sufficient communal areas, bathrooms and toilets. There is a large accessible garden and car parking.

The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People who used the service were safe and had their assessed care, treatment and support needs met by sufficient numbers of adequately trained staff. We saw relevant checks were completed before members of staff were employed by the service to ascertain their suitability to work with vulnerable people.

The registered provider had a range of policies and procedures designed to help keep people safe. Staff were trained to recognise the signs of potential abuse and knew what action to take if they suspected abuse had occurred.

The service was meeting the requirements of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and staff understood the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its principles in relation to people who lacked the capacity to make decisions themselves. These safeguards provide a legal framework to ensure people are only deprived of their liberty when there is no other way to care for them or to safely provide the required treatment.

We observed staff treating people with dignity and respect throughout the inspection. Staff spoke to people in a relaxed but positive manner and we saw they were encouraged to be as independent as possible. People’s assessed needs were planned for and when possible they had contributed to their care plan and stated their preferences for how care and treatment was to be delivered. People were offered a range of choices in their daily lives.

The service was clean and free from malodours. The building was well maintained and suitably furnished. During the inspection a number of bedrooms were being redecorated after consultation with people who used the service.

People who used the service told us they knew how to make a complaint and they thought the registered manager was approachable. The registered provider had a complaints policy in place which was displayed in the entrance to the service.