Archived: St James' Care Home (12)

Updated 1 January 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 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 9 October 2014 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by a single inspector.

Before we visited the service we checked the information that we held about it, including notifications sent to us informing us of significant events that occurred at the service and safeguarding alerts raised. We also asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) which is a report that providers send to us giving information about the service, how they meet people’s needs and any improvements they are planning to make. The provider was not able to complete this in time for the inspection due to an administrative error.

We were not able to speak with people using the service as they were not able to communicate verbally with us. However, we did observe staff caring for them, spoke to four relatives, interviewed four staff including the registered manager and reviewed records.

We looked at three care records, training files, staff supervision records, medication records, audits and complaints. We also contacted the local Healthwatch team, service commissioners and other professionals such as social workers, community mental health nurses, day centre managers and nurse specialists.

Updated 1 January 2015

This inspection took place on 9 October 2014 and was unannounced which meant the provider did not know that we were coming. The service met the regulations we looked at during their last inspection which took place on 22 November 2013.

St James' Care Home (12) provides accommodation for up to five people with learning disabilities. At the time of our inspection, there were four people using the service. It is located in Balham, close to local amenities and transport links. It shares staff with a sister home based at number 21. The home is arranged over three floors with a kitchen and dining area, separate lounge and a garden on the ground floor. The bedrooms were on all three floors and the staff office was located on the top floor.

There was a registered manager at the service. 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 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

We found that there were inconsistencies in some of the care records viewed. People’s individual care needs were not being recorded in a timely manner which meant that people were not always receiving a service that met these. Therefore the provider was not meeting the requirement of the law in relation to meeting people’s individual care needs. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

We found that issues that had been identified during meetings held for people using the service were not always followed up promptly. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

Relatives of people using the service were happy with the care their family member received from staff. They told us they had no concerns about their safety. Staff felt supported and content working at the home. They received effective training and formal supervision.

People using the service required different levels of support. For example, when preparing meals some people required more assistance than others. We saw that staff supported people to be as independent as possible, for example, through the use of specially adapted cutlery. Staff followed guidelines from healthcare professionals when supporting people.

Staff were familiar with the needs of people using the service and we saw them supporting people in a caring manner. Healthcare professionals told us they had established good links with the home and communicated with them to meet the needs of people using the service.