Archived: Delaware House

Updated 19 May 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

This inspection took place on 27 March 2017 and 21 April 2017 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by one inspector 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 care service.

Before the inspection, 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 also reviewed information that we hold about the service such as safeguarding information and notifications. Notifications are the events happening in the service that the provider is required to tell us about. We used this information to plan what areas we were going to focus on during our inspection.

Most of the people using the service were unable to communicate with us verbally so 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 spoke with three people who used the service, seven of their relatives, the registered manger, two team leaders and seven members of care staff. We reviewed three people’s care files, three staff recruitment and support files, training records and quality assurance information.

Updated 19 May 2017

The Inspection took place on 27 March 2017 and 21 April 2017 and was unannounced.

Delaware House is registered to provide accommodation and personal care without nursing to up to 24 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia. There were 21 people living in the service at the time of our inspection.

There was 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.

Although staff had received training and had a good understanding of people’s needs improvements were needed to ensure that staff received regular updates in their training to refresh their knowledge.

People were protected from the risk of harm and staff knew how to protect them. There were sufficient numbers of staff employed that had been appropriately recruited to ensure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people. People received their medication as prescribed.

Staff were well supported and demonstrated a good understanding of the people they cared for. They had access to guidance and information to support them when necessary. The registered manager and staff had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and had received training to ensure that where people lacked the capacity to make decisions they were protected. People were supported to maintain a healthy balanced diet and their healthcare needs had been met.

People were cared for by kind, caring and thoughtful staff who knew them well. They were treated respectfully and staff ensured that their privacy and dignity was always maintained. People expressed their views and opinions and were supported to follow their individual hobbies and interests where possible. The service provided people with advocacy contact should they need them.

People’s care and support needs had been fully assessed prior to admission to the service. There were care plans and risk assessments in place which had been developed to ensure that people were cared for in a way that suited them. The care plans provided staff with the information that they needed to meet individual’s needs and preferences and to care for them safely.

People were confident that their concerns or complaints would be listened to and acted upon. There was an effective system in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service and to drive improvements

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Further information is in the detailed findings below.