Updated 27 February 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 inspector and one expert by experience (ExE). An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type:
April Cottage Retirement Home is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.
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:
The Inspection was unannounced.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service such as notifications.
These are events which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us about. We sought feedback from the local authority who monitor the care and support people. We used all this information to plan our inspection. Due to the timing of our inspection visit, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
During inspection: We spoke with seven people who used the service, three visiting relatives and a district nurse. We also spoke with the registered manager and one care staff.
We observed the care that people received from staff in the communal areas of the service. We reviewed a range of records about people's care and how the service was managed. This included care records of the three people who used the service. We reviewed associated documents including their risk assessments, daily records of the care they received and a sample of medicine records. We looked at records of meetings, staff training records and the recruitment checks carried out for two care staff employed at the service. We also reviewed documents and systems the provider used to assure themselves they provided a good standard of care.