Archived: Halford Lodge

Updated 13 April 2016

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

We reviewed information received about the service, for example the statutory notifications the service had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. We contacted local authority commissioners to find out their views. Commissioners are people who work to find appropriate care and support services which are paid for by the local authority or the NHS. They had no concerns about the service.

The visits took place on 16 and 17 March 2016 and were announced. We told the provider we would be coming so people who used the service could give agreement for us to visit and talk with them. The inspection was conducted by one inspector.

We visited people on 16 March to find out their views of the service and carried out the office visit on the 17 March. During our visits we spoke with seven people who used the service, three care workers, two senior care workers, the assistant manager, the registered manager and a healthcare professional.

We reviewed three people’s care plans to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We checked whether staff had been recruited safely and were trained to deliver the care and support people required. We looked at other records related to people’s care and how the service operated including the service’s quality assurance audits and records of complaints.

Updated 13 April 2016

We undertook an announced visit to Halford Lodge on 16 and 17 March 2016. We told the provider before our visit that we would be coming. This was so people could give consent for us to visit them in their flats to talk with them.

Halford Lodge provides housing with care. People live in their own home and receive personal care and support from staff at pre-arranged times and in emergencies. At the time of our visit 17 people at Halford Lodge received personal care. The provider had informed us the service was due to close by September 2017, staff and people who used the service had been informed of this decision.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety. Staff knew what actions to take to keep people safe and there were procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care. There was a procedure for managing people’s medicines safely.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) to ensure people were looked after in a way that did not inappropriately restrict their freedom. This included applications to the relevant authority for any restrictions to people's freedom that were deemed as necessary to keep them safe; known as Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

People received care from familiar staff who knew them well. People told us staff were caring and had the right skills and experience to provide the care and support they required.

There were enough staff to deliver the care and support people required. Checks were carried out prior to staff starting work to ensure their suitability to work with people who lived at Halford Lodge. Staff received an induction when they started working for the service and completed training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively.

Care plans were regularly reviewed and contained relevant information for staff to help them provide the personalised care people required. People knew how to complain and information about making a complaint was available for people.

There was a stable management team. Staff told us management were approachable and supportive. People and staff felt confident they could raise any concerns or issues with the managers and that these would be listened to and acted on.

There were processes to monitor the quality of the service provided, and to understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through regular communication with people and staff and returned surveys. There was a programme of other checks and audits by the provider and the management team to ensure the quality of the service was maintained.