Ashley House Residential Home

Updated 27 October 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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Ashley House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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 unannounced.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with four members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager and care workers. We made observations of the interactions between people and the care staff throughout our inspection to help us understand their experience of their care.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance, were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We spoke with three relatives and looked at quality assurance records.

Updated 27 October 2021

About the service

Ashley House Residential Home (known as Ashley House) is a residential care home providing personal care to 15 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 18 people. The home has 12 single rooms and 3 shared rooms. People share bathrooms and there is a communal lounge and dining area.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Relatives were positive about the care and support provided by Ashley House. They said the communication with the home was good. Staff were also positive about working at the home and thought there were enough staff on duty to meet people’s needs. Staff continued to be safely recruited.

Staff had completed training in safeguarding and knew what types of incidents needed to be reported. A recent safeguarding concern had been reported to the safeguarding team and investigated appropriately. Risk assessments were completed, and guidance provided for staff to manage these risks. These were reviewed each month. The home was clean throughout and current government guidelines were being followed for the use of PPE and for visitors to the home.

People received their medicines as prescribed. We have made a recommendation about the recording of when topical creams are applied. A quality assurance system was in place. The registered manager had been pro-active in asking for two external audits to be completed. Any recommendations made in these audits were being implemented.

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 this service was good (published 7 January 2020).

Why we inspected

Our monitoring of Ashley House raised concerns in relation to safeguarding. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ashley House Residential Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.