Archived: Darsdale Home

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 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 2012 and to pilot a new inspection process being introduced by CQC which looks at the overall quality of the service.

This was an unannounced inspection.

At the last inspection in October 2013, we found there were no breaches in the legal requirements for the areas we looked at.

Darsdale Home provides accommodation for up to 30 people who live with sensory impairment and may be blind or partially sighted. There were 27 people using the service when we visited.

The home had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service and shares the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law with the provider.

The CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLs) and to report on what we find. We saw that there were policies and procedures in relation to the MCA and DoLs to ensure that people who could make decisions for themselves were protected. From the records we looked at, we found that where people lacked the capacity to make decisions about something, that best interest meetings were held.

People told us that their health care needs were assessed, and care planned and delivered in a consistent way. From the eight care records we looked at, we found that the information and guidance provided to staff was detailed and clear, and presented in an appropriate format.

During our observations throughout the day we saw that staff clearly knew how to support people in a way that each person wanted to be supported. People at risk of malnutrition or dehydration were effectively supported to have a sufficient quantity to eat and drink.

Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. Before entering people’s rooms or providing care, staff would knock on the person’s door and seek permission before providing any personal care to people. One relative told us, “They do ask my wife’s permission before they do things for her.” Another person said, “They always ask my permission before doing anything.”

Staff we spoke with confirmed that people were supported to maintain their independence and social skills where possible. One person we spoke with said, “I am off out now to the pub for lunch, it’s great here.”  The people we spoke with demonstrated to us that the social and daily activities that were provided had been decided upon by each person. We found that people could change their minds if they did not want to engage in an activity.

The provider had a robust recruitment process in place. Records we looked at confirmed that staff were only employed with the home after all essential safety checks had been satisfactorily completed. Staff we spoke with told us that they had not been offered employment until these checks had been confirmed. Records viewed confirmed this to be the case.

We found that there were systems in place to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed.

Other records we looked at evidenced that people were supported to complain or raise any concerns if they needed to. There had not been any recent complaints and we were provided with positive comments about the service from healthcare professionals. The complaints procedure was available to people in a format they could understand and if required, people could be supported through the process by a social worker or an advocate. Our observations confirmed to us that staff responded appropriately if people were not happy, or communicated that they were anxious about something.

The provider used a variety of ways to assess the quality of service that it provided. This was by involving families, advocates, social workers, health care professionals and others on a regular basis. We saw that a variety of audits were in place to assess the quality of the service that was provided.