Arun Lodge Residential Care Home

Updated 18 September 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

One inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type:

Arun Lodge is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The care home had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered manager was also the provider. They are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. They are referred to as the registered manager in this report.

Notice of inspection: The inspection was unannounced and took place on the 31 July 2019. This meant the registered manager did not know we would be visiting.

What we did:

We reviewed the information we held about the home. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as notifications about serious incidents.

We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give us some key information about the home, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan and conduct the inspection.

We spoke with six people living in the home and a visiting relative to obtain their views of the service provided.

We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, and three staff that included catering and care staff. We spoke with a visiting health professional.

We reviewed a range of records. These included three care plans, medicines records, two staff recruitment files, staff training and supervision records. We reviewed records relating to the management of the home. We reviewed how quality assurance checks were completed.

Updated 18 September 2019

About the service:

Arun Lodge is a care home that provides personal care for up to 19 people in one adapted building. At the time of the inspection 17 people were living in the care home.

People’s experience of using this service:

Quality assurance systems needed strengthening, to make sure the provider could demonstrate actions to mitigate risk and make improvements to the quality of the service people received. For example, the registered manager regularly checked the medicines records, but did not record their findings.

People received care and support from staff who had the skills and knowledge to meet their needs safely and effectively.

People's care needs were being met in line with their personal preferences. The service responded when people’s needs changed. They worked with other health professionals to make sure people’s care needs were met.

People were involved in making decisions about their care. Where people were unable to make their wishes known, staff supported them in the least restrictive way and in their best interests.

Staff felt they were valued and respected by the registered manager, who sought their involvement to improve and develop the service.

People were supported by staff who were caring, kind and thoughtful, who showed respect for dignity and privacy, and promoted independence.

Views of people, relatives and health professionals were valued and used to make improvements to the care and support people received.

The service was well managed, by a registered manager and deputy manager who were well respected by the staff team.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was good (published February 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection. The service was rated Good overall. This was based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.