Alveston Leys Care Home

Updated 5 May 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

As part of this inspection, we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection visit was completed by 2 inspectors, 1 specialist advisor and 1 Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is someone who has experience of using this type of service.

Service and service type

Alveston Leys is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. Alveston Leys is a care home with nursing care. Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection visit was unannounced.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed the information we held about the service, such as feedback from people and their relatives, statutory notifications, as well as any information shared with us by the local authority. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 8 people and 5 relatives about the service provided to get their experiences about the quality of care. We spoke with 4 members of care staff, 2 nursing staff, 1 maintenance person, a deputy manager, the registered manager and a quality manager. Following our visit, we spoke with an operations director.

We reviewed a range of records. This included examples of 6 people’s care records, samples of medicine records and associated records of people’s care and support. We looked at records that related to the management and quality assurance of the service and risk management. We reviewed 2 staff recruitment files.

Updated 5 May 2023

About the service

Alveston Leys is registered to provide accommodation, nursing and personal care for up to 60 people, including people living with dementia and a physical disability. At the time of our inspection visit there were 32 people living at the home. Care is provided across three floors that included a residential and nursing unit. A communal lounge and dining area are located on the middle floor. People’s bedrooms are ensuite and there are further communal bathroom facilities located on each floor.

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

People were complimentary about the quality of the care and support they received. Some people felt staff went above and beyond which helped them to feel well cared for. People gave us positive comments about the management of the home.

People told us they felt safe. Staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities to keep people protected from poor practice. Staff were aware of the signs that might indicate a person was worried or anxious and how these could be an indicator of potential abuse or discrimination.

People received their medicines safely. People who required ‘as and when’ medicines had a protocol in place to tell staff, when, how and at what dose, these medicines should be given safely. Medicines were stored safely, and people received their medicines from staff who were trained and competent. Any medicines people required at specific times were administered when needed.

The provider continued to follow safe recruitment processes and staff told us they were trained and competent to complete tasks.

Risks were assessed and updated to ensure staff supported people with the right levels of care. We found some improvements could be made to ensure staff had enough information to support safe diabetes care on the residential unit of the home. This was addressed immediately during our inspection visit.

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.

Most people told us they felt there were enough staff on duty to meet their needs. However, some people felt staff did not always arrive promptly when they called for assistance. Reliance on agency staff had reduced and people felt staff response was better, but still needed improving. During our visit we heard alarm bells were ringing for periods of time. We discussed this with the registered manager who agreed to investigate this to assure themselves there were enough staff at key points of the shift.

The registered manager and provider completed regular audits and checks, including clinical, quality and environmental checks. We found when some of those checks were delegated to others, there was limited scrutiny to ensure those checks were completed correctly and any improvements were addressed. The provider contacted us after our visit and plans to address improvements for some environmental checks had commenced.

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 good (published 06 February 2018).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the standards of care and staffing levels within the home. We had not inspected for some time, so a decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern.

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.

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 stayed the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Alveston Leys on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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