The Lilacs Residential Home

The Lilacs Residential Home is a residential care home providing regulated activity personal care to up to seventeen people. The service provides support to older people some of whom maybe living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 16 people using the service. The care home accommodates people in one adapted building over three floors.

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

People told us they were happy living at the service one person said, “The staff are very good, I won’t hear a bad word said against them.”

The service had been taken over by a new provider and there was a new management team in place.

Improvements were needed with the management of medicines to ensure people were receiving their medication as prescribed. Governance systems needed to improve to ensure there was effective oversight of all aspects of the service.

Care plans were person centred and contained the information staff needed to support people safely. There were appropriate levels of staff to support people. People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse. Staff had received appropriate training to support people.

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.

People were supported to eat and drink enough to ensure they maintained a balanced diet and referrals to other health professionals were made when required. The new provider had made positive changes to the environment and there was a refurbishment plan in place.

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 1 June 2021 and this is the first inspection.

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 9 November 2019.

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.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement

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 monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to medicines at the service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

We found the following examples of good practice.

The manager had followed guidance on infection control procedures to safely support people living at the service during the pandemic.

People and staff had regularly been tested for COVID-19 and where positive results had been returned the manager had acted quickly to support people and mitigate risks.

All staff had received training on how to properly use PPE and there were good systems set up in the service to support the donning and doffing of PPE.

Guidance had been implemented to allow where possible, for relatives to continue to visit people safely. Where visits were unable to go ahead video and telephone calls had been used.

People had been supported to continue to access healthcare, this had included visits from the GP practice nurse. Staff monitored people’s health daily with temperature checks and monitored oxygen levels if showing signs of being unwell. Information was shared with other health professionals when indicated.