Ash Grove

Updated 19 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 was carried out by one inspector and one assistant inspector.

Service and service type:

Ash Grove is a community based extra care facility. The Care Quality Commission regulates the care provided. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service since their last inspection. This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts which they are required to send us by law. We also contacted the local authority who commissioned services from this provider.

During the inspection process we spoke with nine people, six relatives, seven members of staff, five healthcare professionals and the registered manager.

We looked at the care and review records for four people who used the service and four staff files. We looked at recruitment and training files. We looked at records for how people were administered medicines as well as a range of records relating to the running of the service. This included incident and accident monitoring, auditing systems and complaints.

Updated 19 June 2019

About the service:

Ash Grove is a community based extra care facility that was providing personal care to 16 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were safe and staff knew how to keep them safe from harm. The provider had a recruitment process to ensure they had enough staff to support people safely. People received their medicines as prescribed. Staff followed infection control guidance and had access to personal protective equipment. Accidents and incidents were recorded and appropriate action taken.

Staff had the skills and knowledge to meet people's needs. People's nutritional needs were met. People accessed health care when needed. The environment where people lived was very well maintained, freshly decorated and smelt clean and fresh.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring and knew them well. Staff were compassionate and empathetic and had built good relationships with people. People's privacy, dignity and independence were respected by staff. People’s equality and diversity needs were respected.

People's support needs were assessed regularly and planned to ensure they received the support they needed. People's support was individualised. People were supported to take part in social activities. The provider had a complaints process which people were aware of to share any concerns.

The service was well managed. The registered manager was known and made themselves available. Feedback questionnaires were used to gather information about people’s views. Spot checks and audits were carried out to ensure the quality of the service was maintained.

More information is in the Detailed Findings below.

Rating at last inspection:

Rated good (published 14/09/2016).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk