Archived: Bablake House

Updated 17 February 2016

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 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.

The inspection took place on 12 January 2016 and was unannounced. The inspection was undertaken by two inspectors, a specialist advisor in dementia care and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of residential care service.

At the last inspection of the service in December 2015 we found the provider was not meeting all the required standards for maintaining people’s safety. Systems to assess, identify and manage risks were not sufficiently robust to keep people safe. Staff were not using the appropriate equipment to move people safely and this placed people who lived at the home at risk of harm. The provider submitted an action plan to tell us the improvements they had made to keep people safe. We checked to see if these actions had been put into place.

The provider completed a provider information return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We were able to review the information as part of our evidence when conducting our inspection.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. This included statutory notifications received from the provider. These are notifications the provider must send to us. They inform of deaths in the home and incidents that affect people’s health, safety and welfare. We also contacted the local authority commissioners to find out their views of the service provided. Commissioners are people who contract care and support services provided to people. They had recently completed a visit to the service and there were no concerns identified.

We spoke with eight people who lived at the home and four relatives and friends. We spoke with the registered manager, two senior care staff, five care staff and two non-care staff. We also spoke with two visiting healthcare professionals. As some people at Bablake House were unable to tell us about their care, we used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We also spent time observing care and support being delivered in communal areas and we observed how people were supported at lunch time.

We reviewed seven people’s care plans and daily records to see how their care and treatment was planned and delivered. We checked records to make sure staff were recruited safely and were trained to deliver care and support appropriate to each person’s needs. We reviewed the results of the provider’s quality monitoring system to see what actions were taken and planned to improve the quality of the service.

Updated 17 February 2016

We inspected Bablake House on 12 January 2016. The inspection was unannounced.

Bablake House is registered to provide accommodation for up to 45 older people including older people living with dementia who require personal care. There were 38 people living in the home at the time of our visit.

A requirement of the service’s registration is that they have a registered manager. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection.

People living at Bablake House had varying degrees of care needs. Several people had the capacity to express their needs and were able interact with other people and staff members.

There were enough staff available to safeguard the health and wellbeing of people. Where risks associated with people’s care had been identified, there were plans in place to manage those risks. The majority of people had mobility difficulties and had walking aids to assist them to move around safely and independently.

People told us they felt safe in the home and staff understood their role in keeping people safe from abuse. The provider had a thorough recruitment procedure to ensure staff employed in the home were safe to work with the people who lived there. People received their medicines as prescribed.

The registered manager understood their responsibility to comply with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

Staff received an induction to the home and completed on-going training to ensure they understood how to work safely and effectively with people.

People were positive about the caring attitude of the staff. We observed staff being caring to people and saw staff and people enjoying each other’s company. There were some social activities for people to participate in, but some people told us there was not much for them to do.

People were provided with food and drinks that met their health needs and were supported to attend regular health checks.

The registered manager had an understanding of the needs of people living with dementia and was developing the service to provide person centred dementia care. However, this process had not been fully implemented and some improvement was needed to fully achieve this.

People who lived at Bablake House, and staff, felt able to speak with registered manager and share their views about the service. The registered manager was supportive to staff and worked with them to provide good standards of care. There were effective quality assurance systems to monitor and improve the quality of service provided.