Meadow Lodge provides accommodation and personal care for up to 25 older people. 23 people were living at the home at the time of the inspection. This was an unannounced inspection, carried out over two days on 10 and 11 February 2015.
We last inspected Meadow Lodge on 22 October 2013. At that time it was not meeting two essential standards. We asked the provider to take action to make improvements in the areas of the requirements relating to workers and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision. We received an action plan dated 27 November 2013 in which the provider told us about the actions they would take to meet the relevant legal requirements. During this inspection we found they had taken some action. However, we found that some improvements were still required and the provider was not meeting the essential standard in relation to assessing and monitoring the quality of the service provided.
A registered manager was in post at the time of our inspection. 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 living in the home told us they felt safe. Staff had a good understanding of what constituted abuse and told us they would report concerns.
Staff provided support in a safe way. Risk assessments were completed regarding people’s care. However, some information in care records was unclear regarding the risks and managing these.
There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. Staff recruitment and selection processes were in place. However, these were not robust as some staff had started work before the outcomes of all relevant checks were known.
People received their medicines in a safe way.
Staff received induction, supervision and training and knew about people’s needs.
People were asked for their consent. Staff offered choices to people and respected people’s decisions.
People received enough to eat and drink. However, appropriate arrangements were not always in place to monitor people’s weight.
Referrals were made to health care professionals for additional support when needed.
Staff were caring and kind and treated people with dignity and respect. Staff provided support in a person-centred way. However, some care records did not contain enough information about people’s needs and preferences.
Staff supported people to take part in activities that reflected people’s interests.
People felt that the registered manager was approachable. Staff felt comfortable raising concerns to the registered manager.
The provider had not notified the Care Quality Commission of all incidents that they were required to do so by law. There were some systems in place to monitor the safety and quality of the service provided and to address risks. However, improvements were required to improve the effectiveness of these. This was in breach of regulation 10 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010, which corresponds to regulation 17 of 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 of this report.