All inspections: Knowsley Road - Care Quality Commission

This unannounced inspection took place on 12 January 2015. At our last inspection, on 16 January 2014 we had found there was a breach of Regulation 22 Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010, regarding staffing numbers and training. The provider sent us an action plan to tell us that this would be addressed by 01June 2014. We found on this inspection that the breach had been dealt with.

The home required a registered manager. 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 time of this inspection, the registered manager was away on leave and the service was being run by one of the providers who was the also the registered manager at another of their homes, with the support of the provider’s health service manager.

The service was registered to provide care for 24 people and at the time of our inspection, there were 15 people resident although one of these was in hospital. The people supported by the service all had mental health needs and some had additional physical needs.

The home was in a pair of adapted, semi-detached Victorian houses. The building was dark and cold in places.

We found that people were happy and felt safe but they complained of being cold. Their dignity and privacy were not respected as staff entered rooms sometimes without knocking. People were not given a choice about many of the aspects of their daily life such as when to have a snack. Staff were supported and trained but they were not conversant with the Mental Capacity Act (2005) or the associated Deprivation of Liberties Safeguards. The management style was not appropriate to the people being supported and the way the home was run did not allow people to live their lives freely or independently.

We found a number of breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 which corresponded to regulations in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version the report.

We spoke to different people about this service to gain a balanced overview of what people experienced, what they thought and how they were cared for. We spoke to two service users, three staff members and a community psychiatric nurse who was visiting the home. We spent time observing people using the service, to see how they were cared for and how staff interacted with them.

A long term service user said, 'I'm happy here,' but that there were no organised activities.

The property was well maintained and we saw records of relevant safety assessments.

People told us that there were usually enough staff on duty but that care workers sometimes had cleaning duties in addition to supporting service users. We looked at training records for staff in relation to the registered activity and found that while induction and other training was provided, no training relating to mental health care was in place

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We saw that the provider had an appropriate system in place for managing complaints.

One person told us that they were involved in the planning of their care, we were told that at times they did not agree with their care plans and had been able to comment on this. A resident told us that they felt safe at Knowsley Road but would prefer to live at home and that was no reflection on the home at all. They said that staff were "second to none, marvelous."

Archived: Knowsley Road

All Inspections

12 January 2015

During a routine inspection

16 January 2014

During a routine inspection

12 July 2012

During a routine inspection