Archived: Aran Court Care Centre

Updated 10 February 2015

This inspection was completed by two inspectors and an expert by experience that had experience of using services for older people and people with dementia. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. We last inspected this service on 20 November 2013 when we saw that all regulations had been complied with.

Before our inspection we looked at the information we held about the service.This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents and safeguarding alerts. We spoke with commissioners to get their views of the service.

During our inspection we spoke with eight people using the service, twelve relatives, five professionals that visited the home and were involved in providing care and service commissioners. We spoke with seven staff including nurses and care staff. We looked at people’s care records, spoke with them where possible, and spoke with staff that supported them to see how well their needs were being met. We observed staff interactions with three people and the mid-day meal. Records we looked at included care records for four people, six staff files, training and supervision matrixes, staff rotas and quality assurance records. We received a completed provider information return (PIR) after we had completed our inspection. The provider told us that they had not received the initial request.

This report was written during the testing phase of our new approach to regulating adult social care services. After this testing phase, inspection of consent to care and treatment, restraint, and practice under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) was moved from the key question ‘Is the service safe?’ to ‘Is the service effective?’

‘The ratings for this location were awarded in October 2014. They can be directly compared with any other service we have rated since then, including in relation to consent, restraint, and the MCA under the ‘Effective’ section. Our written findings in relation to these topics, however, can be read in the ‘Is the service safe’ sections of this report.

Updated 10 February 2015

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, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014. 

This inspection was unannounced.

There were 84 people living in the home at the time of our inspection.  The home had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider.

Aran Court Care Centre is a purpose built three storey property. The home accommodates up to 86 people who may have dementia, personal care and/or nursing care needs.

We saw that Aran Court Care Centre provided a good service to people who required nursing and personal care. We saw that people were referred to the appropriate health care professionals so that the appropriate advice was sought to ensure that people’s needs were met. This meant that the manager worked well with other people involved in providing care to people and ensured that people’s needs were monitored and met.

People were protected from harm because there were adequate numbers of staff with the appropriate skills; however some staff lacked knowledge about the restrictions in place to protect some people. Where there was a suspicion of abuse the appropriate referrals were made to safeguard people. Recruitment procedures ensured that the appropriate checks were undertaken to assess staff’s suitability for their roles. This meant that there were systems in place to protect people from abuse.

People’s needs were assessed with the involvement of relatives where possible and care plans were written so staff were provided with the information they needed to support people. We saw that there were policies and procedures in place to ensure that people were supported to make decisions where possible and where they were not able to make decisions their rights were protected.  We saw that decisions about medical treatment for people unable to make decisions for themselves were made following discussions with relatives and health care professionals. We saw that staff knew people’s needs and had received training and on going support that enabled them to understand people’s diverse needs. This meant that people’s needs were met appropriately and in an individualised way.

We saw that there were good interactions between staff and people that lived in the home. There were organised activities to occupy people if they wanted to be involved. We saw that interactions with and activities for people who remained in their bedrooms  or for people who had dementia were limited and these could be improved so that people had a better quality of life and an improved sense of wellbeing.

We saw that staff knocked on people’s bedroom doors, asked permission before entering and closed bedroom doors before providing personal care. This ensured that people’s privacy and dignity was promoted.