Old Gates Care Home

Old Gates Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care to up to 90 people. The service provides support to older people and those living with a physical disability or dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 52 people using the service who resided in two separate units, each with separate facilities. There was a third unit which had recently been closed and was not in use.

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

We have made recommendations about the management of some medicines and staffing levels and deployment. Staff were employed following a safe and robust recruitment process.

Safeguarding training was mandatory, and staff were aware of the processes to follow to ensure they could keep people safe. Risks relating to people that used the service and the premises were assessed and effective infection prevention and control was embedded in the home.

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. Staff received training that was relevant to their role as well as regular supervision and appraisal. People were supported to maintain a healthy and balanced diet and their needs had been assessed in detail. There was involvement from external agencies in the delivery of care at the home.

Staff supported people in a caring and considerate way which respected their privacy, dignity and independence. People were able to express their wishes and relatives praised the staff approach. Staff had a good knowledge and understanding of people's specific care and support needs and how they wished to be cared for.

People’s support plans were detailed and reviewed regularly. Their communication needs were met, and the staff understood their needs well. People were involved in activities in the home and the local community and they were supported to maintain relationships that are important to them. Complaints and concerns were investigated fully, and lessons learned where appropriate.

A range of audits and quality assurance checks were being completed and improvements had been made. The medicines audit did not always identify the monitoring of equipment for those with long term health conditions. We made a recommendation about this. Staff and relatives spoke positively of the registered manager who was described as, “Approachable", “Helpful” and “Flexible." Staff told us that they were supported by the management who had implemented a culture of continuous learning and development.

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

This service was registered with us on 8 April 2022 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was requires improvement, (published 7 December 2019.) The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

At our last inspection we made a recommendation about training. At this inspection we found that improvements had been made and staff training records were up to date.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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.

Recommendations

We have made recommendations in relation to medicines records, medicines audits and staffing levels.

Follow up

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