Archived: Farmcote Lodge

Updated 31 July 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.

The inspection of Farmcote Lodge took place on 1 July 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 reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked at 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 contracts team and asked for their views about Farmcote Lodge. They had no concerns about the service.

We reviewed the information in the provider’s information return (PIR). This is a form we asked the provider to send to us before we visited. The PIR asked the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We found the information in the PIR was an accurate assessment of how the service operated.

During our visit we spoke with the registered manager, two senior support workers and two support workers. We spoke with seven people who used the service. We reviewed four people’s care plans and daily records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We looked at other records related to people’s care and how the service operated including, medication records, staff recruitment records, the service’s quality assurance audits and records of complaints.

Updated 31 July 2015

We undertook an announced inspection of Farmcote Lodge on 1 July 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.

Farmcote Lodge provides housing with care. People live in their own home and have a tenancy agreement with Whitefriars Housing. People receive personal care and support from staff at pre-arranged times and in emergencies. The unit consists of 30 flats; at the time of our visit 24 people used the service.

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 living at Farmcote Lodge. Staff understood their responsibility to keep people safe and knew what to do if they thought people were at risk of harm. 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.

The manager and staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care. People were supported to maintain their independence and to live their lives as they chose. People were happy with the care they received and said staff treated them with respect and maintained their privacy when providing care.

Staff received regular training and there were enough suitably trained staff to meet people’s individual support needs. People received consistent support from staff who knew them well. The service was based on people’s personal needs and preferences.

Care plans and risk assessments contained relevant information for staff to help them provide the personalised care people required. People were involved in making decisions about their care and were able to share their views and opinions about the service they received.

Staff said they worked well as a team and received good support from the registered manager. Staff were confident they could raise any concerns or issues with the registered manager and they would be listened to and acted on.

There were processes to monitor quality and understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through direct feedback from people, returned surveys, tenant and staff meetings and a programme of checks and audits.