Archived: Verona Avenue

Updated 5 January 2018

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 was a comprehensive that took place on 23 November 2017 and was carried out by one inspector. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because sometimes there are periods when staff are not present at the location and other times when people are not in, because they are involved in activities away from the home.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We met with the new manager, the operations director and the clinical lead for the home at the manager’s office in Shelley Park Centre and then went on to the home. There we met and spoke with the team leader for the service and the one person living at Verona Avenue.

We looked at this person’s care and support records including their medicine administration records and records relating to the management of the home.

Updated 5 January 2018

Verona Avenue is a care home that provides residential care for up to 4 people who are recovering from brain injury following a period of rehabilitation at Shelley Park Neurological Care Centre, a specialist neurological service. As a result of their injuries, people have complex needs and are supported by a range of different professionals.

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. At the time of this inspection there was one person living at the home.

There was a registered manager in post; however, before the inspection we learnt that the registered manager had ceased working at the home. An interim manager had taken over the management of the home a few days before the inspection. 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.

At the last inspection, the service was rated Good and at this inspection we found the service remained Good.

The person living at the home felt safe and well-supported.

There was a system to assess the physical environment and also assess the risks in supporting people to meet their identified goals as safely as possible.

Staff had been trained in in safeguarding adults and were aware how to make safeguarding referrals.

Plans were in place on how to support people in the event of an emergency and in the event of emergency situations.

Robust recruitment procedures were followed to make sure that appropriate staff were employed to support people.

Staffing levels were appropriate to meet the needs of the person living in the home: the levels had been planned to help the person meet their rehabilitation goals.

There were appropriate systems in place to support people with medicines in line with the objective of supporting people to progress towards managing their medication on their own.

The organisation had an induction and training programme in place and a system to ensure staff had the opportunity to refresh and develop their skills and knowledge. Staff ensured they gained people’s consent before supporting them in meeting identified goals and the service was compliant with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Systems were in place to support people with budgeting, shopping and cooking.

The person living at the home felt the staff were very caring and supportive.

People’s needs had been fully assessed and interventions and goals set with people’s involvement. These were detailed in care plans that were up to date with evidence of regular reviews. Care plans were person centred focussing on their goals for rehabilitation.

People were supported with leisure and recreational goals as well as domestic routines so that they could fill their time meaningfully as well as working to rehabilitation goals.

There was a system in place for managing complaints that people were aware of. No complaints had been made about the service since our last inspection.

The service was well-led with an open culture and management sought continual improvement.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of service provided to people.