Archived: North Road Care Homes

Updated 6 November 2015

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.

This inspection took place on 8 and 9 July 2015 and day one was unannounced. This meant the provider and staff did not know we were coming. The visit was undertaken by an adult social care inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the home, including the notifications we had received from the provider. Notifications are changes, events or incidents the provider is legally obliged to send us within required timescales. Information from the local authority safeguarding adult’s team and commissioners of care was also reviewed.

During the visit we spoke with 15 staff including the registered manager, five people who used the service and eight relatives or visitors. Observations were carried out over a mealtime and during a social activity, and a medicines round was observed. 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 also spoke with two external professionals who regularly visited the service.

Four care records were reviewed as were eight medicines records and the staff training matrix. Other records reviewed included safeguarding adult’s records and deprivation of liberty safeguards applications. We also reviewed complaints records, three staff recruitment/induction and training files and staff meeting minutes. Other records reviewed also included people’s weight monitoring, internal audits and the maintenance records for the home.

The internal and external communal areas were viewed as were the kitchen and dining areas on each unit, offices, storage and laundry areas and, when invited, some people’s bedrooms.

Updated 6 November 2015

This was an unannounced inspection which took place over two days on 8 and 9 July 2015. This was the service’s first inspection since a change of registration in July 2013.

North Road Care Homes is a care home providing accommodation and personal care, including nursing care, to 54 older people, including people with a dementia diagnosis. There were 43 people living at the service at the time of the inspection.

There was a registered manager who had been in post two years. 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.

People told us they felt safe living at the service and that staff knew how to act to keep them safe from harm. The building and some of the fixtures and fittings were in need of repair or updating, and some communal areas had hazards that needed removing to prevent risks to the people living there.

There were enough staff to meet people’s often complex needs and the staff were trained, supervised and supported to meet their needs.

Medicines were managed well by the staff and people received the help they needed to take them safely. Where people’s needs changed the staff sought medical advice and encouraged people to maintain their well-being.

People were supported by staff who knew their needs well and how best to support them. They were aware of individual’s choices and how to support those people who no longer had the capacity to make decisions for themselves. Families felt the service was effective and offered them re-assurance that their relatives were being cared for.

People were supported to maintain a suitable food and fluid intake. Staff responded flexibly to ensure that people maintained their physical wellbeing and worked with people individually. Where decisions had to be made about people’s care, families and external professionals were involved and consulted as part of the process.

Staff were caring and valued the people they worked with. Staff showed kindness and empathy in dealing with people’s needs and families felt their relatives were cared for by a staff team who valued them and would keep them safe.

People’s privacy and dignity were carefully considered by the staff team, who ensured that their choices and previous wishes were respected.

People who were receiving end of life care had their needs appropriately assessed. Professional advice was sought where needed to promote advance care planning if required.

The service responded to people’s needs as they changed over time, sometimes responding to emergencies. The service supported people to access appropriate support so the staff could keep them safe and well.

The registered manager led by example, supporting staff to consider the best ways to meet people’s needs. The registered manager regularly consulted families and looked for ways to improve the service through audits and regular reviews of care delivery.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.