The Old Post Office Residential Home

Updated 20 September 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 checked 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 8 August 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

As part of the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service, including notifications. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about. We reviewed feedback from the commissioners of people's care to find out their views on the quality of the service. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection, we spoke with three people, three staff and the covering manager. We observed the delivery of care and support provided to people living at the location and their interactions with staff. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We reviewed the care records of two people and three staff files, which included pre-employment checks and training records. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service including complaint logs, monthly audits, and medicine administration records.

Updated 20 September 2018

This inspection took place on 7 August 2018 and was unannounced.

The Old Post Office Residential Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.”

The home accommodates up to seven people in an adapted building some people live in single occupancy flats others have bedrooms and share living space. At the time of the inspection there were five people living in the care home.

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. There was a registered manager in post, however they were not at work at the time of the inspection, the provider had made arrangements for another manager to provide cover for the home.

People were protected from abuse as staff understood how to recognise the signs and report concerns. Risks were assessed and there was guidance for staff to support people to stay safe. There were systems in place to minimise the risk of cross infection. People were supported by safely recruited staff and there were enough staff to meet people’s needs. People had their medicines as prescribed and these were managed safely. The provider had systems in place to learn when things went wrong.

People had their needs assessed and plans were in place to meet them. Staff were trained to provide support to people and offered consistent care. People were supported to have meals of their choice and had their health needs met. The environment people lived in was adapted to meet their needs. 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 by kind and caring staff and they had good relationships with staff. People could make choices about their care and their communication needs were understood by staff. People were supported to make decisions and maintain their independence. People were treated with dignity and respect.

People had assessments carried out of their diverse needs and plans put in place to meet them. People needs and preferences were understood by staff, and their care plans were reviewed regularly. People had support to go out into the community and follow their interests. People understood how to make a complaint and there was a system in place to investigate these. There was a system in place to consider people’s wishes for end of life care.

The quality of the service people received was checked and the information was used to drive improvements to the service. There were regular opportunities for people, relatives and staff to give their feedback ion the service and the provider had systems in place to use the information from these to make improvements. The provider had systems in place to monitor the delivery of people’s care.