Abbottswood Lodge Residential Care Home

Updated 17 March 2022

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Abbottswood Lodge Residential Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. 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

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people living at the service and two relatives about their experience of the service. We spoke with six members of staff including the registered manager, quality manager, senior care staff and carers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care plans and multiple medicines records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures. We used the 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.

After the inspection

We reviewed all the information the registered manager sent us which included quality audits, training records, policies and procedures and records of meetings.

Updated 17 March 2022

About the service

Abbottswood Lodge Residential Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 13 people. The service provides support to people over the age of 65 who may or may not be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 11 people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People and their relatives told us they felt safe with the care provided by the service. Staff knew how to protect people from harm and recognise and report abuse. Risks to people had been assessed and recorded. The service was clean and infection control guidelines were being followed. There were enough staff who were recruited safely. People received their medicines safely.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were supported with their health needs and to eat and drink well. Staff were well trained and received regular updates.

People were supported to take part in activities and to maintain relationships and social interactions with others. Staff worked hard to ensure people felt included and supported. There was a complaints system in place for people if they needed to raise concerns.

People were complimentary about the registered manager and felt they were friendly, knowledgeable and approachable. The registered manager had worked hard to improve the service since the last inspection and had good systems in place to monitor the quality of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 25 May 2019) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively. This included checking the provider was meeting COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Abbottswood Lodge Residential Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.