19 February and 2 March 2015
During a routine inspection
This inspection took place on 19 February 2015 and was unannounced. We continued the inspection on 2 March 2015 to look at documents relating to assessment and monitoring of service provision. This visit was arranged with the nominated individual at their earliest availability following the first visit. When we last inspected The Grove Care Home in April 2014 we found the home was failing to meet the standards required in all of the regulations we assessed. We told the provider that improvements must be made.
When we inspected the service on 8 April 2014 we found the registered provider was not meeting the regulations relating to respecting and involving people who use services, cleanliness and infection control, staffing, assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision and records. We asked the registered provider to make improvements. On this visit we checked to see if improvements had been made.
The Grove Care Home is registered to provide residential care for up to 28 older people. Bedrooms are situated on both the ground and first floor with communal lounges and dining room on the ground floor. There were 15 people living at the home at the time of our inspection.
A new manager has been in position since October 2014. This person has registered manager status in another of the provider’s services and is currently applying to the Care Quality Commission to transfer this status to The Grove. 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 the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
We found that the new manager had taken sufficient action to meet with most of the compliance actions set as a result of our inspection in April 2014. Staffing arrangements were still in need of improvement.
People told us they felt safe and staff knew how to maintain people’s safety although some had not had the required training. People told us they sometimes had to wait for support as staff were very busy and although attentive, were not always available to them.
The home was generally clean although adequate hand washing facilities were not always in place.
Staff training was in need of updating particularly in relation to the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). We saw that training had been arranged in this and other areas. Systems for supporting staff were in place and although some slippage had occurred, the new manager was addressing this.
Staff treated people with kindness and respect. People who lived at the home and their relatives told us the staff were very caring.
Staff respected people’s right to make choices and knew how to support people in this. People received a nutritious diet and found the food enjoyable.
Care planning had improved since our last inspection and plans were in place for further development.
Activities were provided but this was not at a level which would meet the needs of all the people living at the home.
Processes were in place for auditing the quality of service provision. The new manager was in the process of bringing these up to date.
We found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.