Archived: The Cedars Residential Care Home

Updated 4 January 2016

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.

We carried out an unannounced inspection on 6 October 2015 and then undertook a second announced visit on 19 October 2015. Both days of the inspection were carried out by two adult social care inspectors.

Before the inspection, we checked information that we held about the service and the service provider. We looked at any notifications received and reviewed any other information we hold prior to visiting. We invited the local authority to provide us with any information they held about the Cedars. We viewed information from visits carried out by Healthwatch and the Environmental Health Officer.

During our inspection we saw how people who lived in the home were provided with care. We spoke to a total of eleven people living there, four visiting family members, a visiting volunteer, seven staff members including the registered manager and the home services manager. The people living in the home and their family members were able to tell us what they thought about the home and the staff members working there.

We gained the co-operation of people living at the home and their staff team to allow us to spend time in various areas of their home. During our inspection we observed how staff supported people throughout the day. We used a number of different methods to help us understand the experiences of people living at the home. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who were using the service at the time of our inspection.

We looked around the home as well as checking records. We looked at a total of five care plans [CLS call these life plans].  We looked at other documents including policies and procedures and audit materials. Records reviewed included: staffing rotas; risk assessments; complaints; staff files covering recruitment; training; maintenance records; health and safety checks; supervision of staff; policies and procedures; minutes of meetings, medication records and storage of medicines.

Updated 4 January 2016

This inspection took place on 6 and 19 October 2015. The first day of the inspection was unannounced and the date of the second day was discussed and agreed with the home manager.

The last inspection took place on the 25 September 2013 when The Cedars Residential Care Home [The Cedars] was found to compliant in the following areas: consent, care and welfare, meeting nutritional needs, safety of premises and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision.

The Cedars is part of CLS Care Services Ltd and is registered to provide accommodation for people who require help and support with their daily lives. The two storey building can accommodate up to 27 people in single bedrooms. The home is located in the town of Holmes Chapel and is close to the town centre and other local amenities. Staff members are on duty 24 hours a day to provide care for the people who live in the home. At the time of our visit there were 24 people living in the home.

The Cedars had 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.

We asked people using the service if they felt safe at The Cedars they said that they did.

The service had a safeguarding procedure in place. This was designed to ensure that any possible problems that arose were dealt with openly and people were protected from possible harm.

We looked at the files for the three most recently appointed staff members to check that effective recruitment procedures had been completed. We found that the appropriate checks had been made to ensure that they were suitable to work with vulnerable adults.

We asked staff members about training and they all confirmed that they received regular training throughout the year and that it was up to date.

The service had a range of policies and procedures which included guidance on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. Staff members need to undertake training in these areas.

There was a flexible menu in place which provided a good variety of food to the people using the service.

The five care plans [CLS call these ‘life plans] contained personalised information and they were written in a style that would enable any staff member reading it to have a good idea of what help and assistance someone needed at a particular time. All of the plans that we looked at were well-maintained and were being reviewed monthly so staff would know what changes, if any, had been made. The registered manager explained that all of the plans were in the process of being reviewed in depth with a view of making further improvements to them.

Staff members we spoke with were positive about how the home was being managed. Throughout the inspection we observed them interacting with each other in a professional manner. All of the staff members we spoke with were positive about the service and the quality of the support being provided.

We found that the registered manager and provider used a variety of methods in order to assess the quality of the service they were providing to people. These included regular audits on areas such as the care files, including risk assessments, medication and staff training.  The records were being maintained properly.