Elm Park Lodge

Updated 9 March 2021

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:

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type:

Elm Park Lodge 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 service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

This inspection was announced. We gave a short period notice of the inspection as we were mindful of the impact and added pressures of Covid-19 pandemic on the service. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances and requirements arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What we did before the inspection:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection due to the timing of the inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection:

We spoke with four people at the care home, one of the registered managers and the deputy manager.

In addition to talking with people, we spent time observing the daily life in the home and we looked around the building to check the service was safe and clean. We also observed lunch being given at the home.

We reviewed recruitment records for three staff members. We also checked whether medicines were safely managed and medicine administration records (MARs) were accurate. We checked five medicine stocks against MARs. We reviewed four care records including care plans and risk assessments. We read minutes of team and resident meetings and checked logs were kept of accidents and incidents.

We discussed quality assurance with the registered manager and deputy and the actions they had taken since the last inspection to improve quality, and planned changes.

After the inspection:

We spoke with three members of staff and requested additional quality assurance records and audits, staff and resident meeting minutes, and information regarding infection control procedures.

We received updates on the actions taken following the inspection.

We also received additional feedback from six family members and three health and social care professionals who worked with the service.

Updated 9 March 2021

About the service:

Elm Park Lodge is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation for up to 27 people with mental health needs. The home is on a residential street in a community setting and designed to promote people's inclusion and independence. There are two flats which are included in the registration for the care home, located next door.

At the time of the inspection there were 27 people living at the service.

People’s experience of the service

People and their relatives praised the service provided, and told us staff were kind and caring to them.

At the last inspection we found there were breaches of the regulations as medicines were not always safely managed and staff recruitment was not always safe. Improvements had been made in both of these areas.

People told us they felt safe and we saw they were safeguarded against the risks of abuse and harm by the provider systems and by the staff. Risk assessments were in place and staff understood how to minimise harm to people.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and provide responsive care. Staff recruitment was safe.

People told us they were happy living at the service, and we saw staff understood people’s needs and routines. People and their family members told us they were supported to access external health professionals to help promote good health and wellbeing. Health and social care professionals told us the management team worked in partnership with them to achieve good outcomes for people.

We saw the service had managed an outbreak of COVID-19 effectively and had put in place measures to minimise the spread, and prevent future outbreaks. We saw increased measures were in place to keep the service clean and the majority of staff wore personal protective equipment (PPE) correctly. Health and social care professionals told us the service worked well with them to manage the virus.

Family members told us they had been kept fully informed about the outbreak and maintained communication with their relative through phone or other electronic means. During the summer face to face contact had been safely facilitated.

Activities took place at the service and people were encouraged to go out walking whilst complying with lockdown measures.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Quality audits took place to ensure health and safety, finance, medicines and care records were up to date and staff told us they were well supported in their role.

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

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for the service was requires improvement (published 18 September 2019).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions, Safe, Caring and Well-led which contain those requirements.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those Key Questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

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