Archived: Life Opportunities Trust - 89 Bishops Road

We also found at the previous inspection that there were staff shortages. There had only been four nights covered each week by a waking night staff member and staff that were sleeping in at night the other nights were sometimes being woken up and then had to work the next day after they had had disturbed sleep. As staff were often tired this then had an impact on people living in the home who did not always get a chance to go out into the community. The acting manager said this would be addressed by June 2014.

The home continues to have no registered manager. There are plans for the home to transfer to supported living accommodation, where there would not be a registered manager based at this home. This change was due to take place soon.

At this visit we talked with two staff members, the acting manager and one person who lived in the home. Observations were carried out as due to people's individual communication needs they were not all able to talk with us about their experiences of the home. We also viewed two people's care records.

We saw that people were relaxed with staff and where required they were supported to eat their meals in a sensitive and unhurried manner. The person we spoke with said it was “good living here (the home)” and that staff were “nice”.

Care records were up to date and recorded people’s individual needs both during the day and at night. Risk assessments had also been updated and checked by the acting manager.

There was now waking night cover seven nights a week and at present regular bank staff covered these shifts. The permanent staff team had one full time vacancy which was covered by bank staff or occasionally an agency staff member was used. Staff we spoke with said there were still times when it was stressful as people’s needs were changing and some people needed two to one support to access community resources.

We found that people were enabled to make day to day decisions about their care and were asked for their agreement before care was provided to them.

The provider had appropriate arrangements in place to manage medicines.

We found that there was a system in place to monitor the service to ensure people's well-being and that the quality of the service was adequate.

We found that people's care and support was not always planned and delivered in a way to fully ensure people's safety and welfare.

We also found that staffing arrangements were not appropriate to fully meet people's individual needs.

People's needs were recorded in support plans and risks had been identified to ensure people and/or others were safe from harm. Staff reviewed the information about people on a regular basis. One person said they felt "safe living in the home and would talk with staff or my family..." if they had concerns. One relative commented in the 2012 annual satisfaction questionnaire that the staff were excellent at communicating with them.

We saw the home had various ways to monitor the service and the care provided to people living in the home. Regular audits were carried out on people's medication and checks were carried out on the premises to ensure it was safe to live and work in.