Archived: Pelton Grange Care Home

This inspection took place on 6 and 8 October 2015 and was unannounced. This meant the provider was did not know we were coming.

We last inspected Pelton Grange on 4 December 2013 and found it was compliant with the regulations in force at the time.

Pelton Grange is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide care for up to 43 elderly people. The home also provides nursing care. At the time of our inspection there were 37 people living in the home. The provider had recently altered two single bedrooms on the first floor to create an office and a kitchen. Another bedroom on the ground floor was also used as an office. Some other bedrooms that in the past had been used as double rooms were now redesigned for single occupancy. This meant that the number of rooms available for occupancy was now 38.

Five beds were contracted by the local CCG and are designated as ‘Intermediate Care’ beds to facilitate early discharge and reduce admissions to hospital. Care is provided by staff employed by the home with intensive support by intermediate care staff who visit regularly. These include physiotherapists, occupational therapists and specialist nurses.

During our inspection we found the previous registered manager had retired and left the service and a new acting manager had been appointed. On the day of our inspection the acting manager had been in post for four weeks. 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.

We found staffing levels at the home were appropriate for the number of people living there.

We found people’s medicines were well managed.

We saw the home had in place personal emergency evacuation plans displayed close to the main entrance and accessible to emergency rescue services.

We found the home had cleaning schedules in place to prevent the spread of infection.

The registered provider had worked within the Mental Capacity Act 2005. We saw that all people living at Pelton Grange had been asked for consent to support and Mental Capacity Act assessments to identify their capacity to consent to their care had been carried out. We also saw Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards were in place where required.

We observed staff speaking with people in kind, respectful and reassuring ways. People told us they felt their dignity and privacy were respected by staff.

We saw a notice board on which was displayed information about the activities for that week. During our inspection we found various activities were taking place.

We found the provider had audits in place to measure and monitor the quality of the service. The provider had in place a complaints policy in place and this was clearly displayed for people to see. We found that complaints were investigated appropriately.

During our inspection we found staff had not received regular one to one supervision sessions with the previous registered manager who had retired four weeks before our inspection visit.

This is a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 and under the Care Act 2014 Regulation 18 (1) (a). You can see at the back of this report what actions we have asked the provider to take.