Archived: Frank Walsh House

Updated 15 December 2015

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 the local authority commissioners to find out their views of the service provided. These are people who contract care and support services paid for by the local authority. They had no concerns about the service.

The office visit took place on 19 November 2015 and was 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 and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using, or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. We were also supported by two interpreters, arranged by the registered manager, to assist our discussions with people who used the service whose first language was not English.

During our visit we spoke with nine people who used the service, three care workers, a senior care worker, deputy manager and the registered manager.

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 15 December 2015

We undertook an announced visit to Frank Walsh House on 19 November 2015. 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.

Frank Walsh House 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 28 people lived at Frank Walsh House.

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.

People felt safe using the service and care workers understood how to protect people from abuse. There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety; these included procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care and for managing people’s medicines safely. Checks were carried out prior to care staff starting work to ensure their suitability to work with people who used the service.

The managers understood their responsibilities in relation to the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and supported people in line with these principles. Care workers had good awareness of how to support people who lacked capacity to make certain decisions and had restrictions on how they lived their lives to keep them safe.

People were happy with the care they received and told us they had regular care workers that were kind and caring. Care workers maintained people’s privacy and treated people with respect. People were supported, where possible, to maintain their independence and live their lives as they chose.

Care workers received an induction and a programme of training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively. People said care workers had the right skills and experience to provide the care and support they required. Care plans and risk assessments contained relevant information for care workers to help them provide personalised care to people.

People knew how to complain and were able to share their views and opinions about the service they received. Care workers were confident they could raise any concerns or issues with the managers, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.

There were processes to monitor the quality of the service provided and understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through regular communication with people and staff, returned surveys, spot checks on care workers and a programme of other checks and audits.