Background to this inspection
Updated
6 June 2019
The inspection:
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection team consisted of one adult social care inspector and one expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who had first hand experience of care settings. On this occasion the expert by experience had experience of caring for a person with dementia.
Service and service type: This service is a care home. It provides accommodation and personal care to people living in the service on one site.
The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager, along with the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The previous registered manager had left and an acting manager was in place and working towards registration.
Notice of inspection:
We visited the service on 3 May 2019 and our inspection was unannounced.
What we did:
The acting manager sent us a provider information return (PIR). This is a document completed by the registered manager which contains information on how the service is developing and any planned improvements.
As part of the inspection we spent time with eight people who used the service. We conducted a 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 also spoke with the acting manager, the deputy manager, two members of care staff, the support area manager, the cook, the maintenance worker and two external healthcare professionals. We looked at three people’s care records and looked at three staff files including training and recruitment. We reviewed the service’s accidents and incidents, audits and complaints policies.
Updated
6 June 2019
About the service:
Garden House is a ‘care home’. At the time of our inspection there were 21 people living in the home. Garden House provided care and support for people with different needs and backgrounds, including people living with dementia, mental health needs and physical disabilities.
People’s experience of using this service:
People who lived in Garden House received person centred care and were supported by staff who knew them, their needs and their interests well. People received personalised support which met their needs and preferences.
Staff involved people in every aspect of their care where possible and enabled them to share their views and make choices. People’s care plans contained highly personalised information which detailed how they wanted their care to be delivered.
Risks to people’s health, safety and wellbeing were assessed and acted upon. People were protected from potential abuse by staff who had received training and were confident in raising concerns. There was a thorough recruitment process in place that checked potential staff were safe to work with people who may be vulnerable.
People were supported by kind and caring staff who worked hard to promote their independence and sense of wellbeing. Staff were provided with the training, supervision and support they needed to care for people well.
People received their medicines safely and as prescribed. People had access to food and drinks that met their needs and preferences.
There was strong leadership at the service. External healthcare professionals and staff spoke highly of the management team and there was a positive culture at the service with people and staff feeling their voices were listened to.
Where necessary, specialist advice from healthcare professionals was sought. One healthcare professional said, “When I give advice it’s always followed. They call us when they need us.”
There were effective quality assurance systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service provided.
More information is in the full report
Rating at last inspection: This service was last inspected on 22 and 27 September 2016 and was rated good overall and in every key question except Responsive which was rated requires improvement. The report was published 1 November 2016.
Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection based on previous ratings.
Follow up: We will continue to monitor the intelligence we receive about the service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated good. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.