Archived: Castle Meadows Care Home

Updated 14 July 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 was planned to check 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 7 April 2015 and was unannounced. The inspection team comprised of two inspectors.

We looked at the information we already had about this provider. Providers are required to notify the Care Quality Commission about specific events and incidents that occur including serious injuries to people receiving care and any safeguarding matters. These help us to plan our inspection.

We spoke with 14 people who lived at the home, three relatives, the registered manager, nurse, four care staff and the cook. We looked at the care records of six people, the medicine management processes and at records maintained by the home about staffing, training and the quality of the service. We also received information from a community nurse and the local authority.

Updated 14 July 2015

The inspection took place on 7 April 2015 and was unannounced. Castle Meadows Care Home provides accommodation, personal and nursing care for up to 51 people who may be living with dementia or a physical disability. At the time of our inspection there were 44 people living at the home. The home is divided into two units; the residential unit and the nursing unit.

At the last inspection, in May 2013 we found that the provider was meeting the regulations we inspected under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

A registered manager was based 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager also managed another home owned by the same company so they were not available at Castle Meadows Care Home on a fulltime basis.

People told us they felt safe in the home and we saw the registered manager and staff knew how to involve other professionals where incidents of a potential safeguarding nature had taken place. The registered manager had ensured that learning from incidents was shared and we saw a reduction in the incidence of people falling because they had taken appropriate action.

People and their relatives were satisfied with the numbers of staff on duty. We saw the staffing levels had been increased in line with people’s changing needs and the registered manager had improved the skill mix by ensuring the staff on duty had the right skills and experience to meet people’s needs.

People told us they had their medicines when they needed them. Guidelines for the use of ‘as required’ medicines and medicines that needed to be given in a specific way were needed.

Staff worked within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 by seeking people’s consent before care tasks were carried out. Further consideration of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) was needed to ensure the provider had considered these to protect the legal and civil rights of people using the service.

People were supported to have their health care needs met and staff made appropriate use of a range of health professionals and followed their advice. People told us they enjoyed the meals and we saw there was a selection of meal choices. We observed positive interaction between staff and people who lived at the home. Staff knew people well and were aware of their likes and dislikes. Staff told us they felt supported and received regular supervision.

People who lived at the home, their relatives and staff told us they were happy, and that they were encouraged to share their opinions about the quality of the service. We saw that the provider had a system in place for dealing with people’s concerns and complaints and had followed this.

The registered manager had identified where improvements were needed and we saw she was working on these. People felt the home was well managed and staff felt they had support from other managers when the registered manager was not available to work in the home.