Friary Meadow

Friary meadow is a domiciliary care agency and 'extra care' service. It is registered to provide personal care to people who live in their own apartments within a dedicated housing scheme. The complex consists of apartments, houses and bungalows privately owned. There are also some shared communal areas and facilities; such as a restaurant, café, cinema and gardens which people can access.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were four people using the service.

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

There was a lack of systems and management oversight to ensure care was provided in a safe effective way. The nominated individual and manager told us there were no quality assurance systems placing people at risk due to poor governance and record keeping. Systems were not in place to identify areas for improvement and to ensure improvements were made.

Medicines were not safely managed. Medicine audits were not completed, and medicine care plans did not include all information required for staff to ensure safe management of medicines for people.

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 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's care plans contained personalised information which detailed how they wanted their care to be delivered. Staff knew people and expressed care and affection for them when speaking with us. People were

supported by kind and caring staff who worked hard to promote their independence and sense of wellbeing.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 17 February 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date the service was registered.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to the safe management of medicines and governance and quality monitoring of the service. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will

return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information, we may inspect sooner.