24 September and 2, 9 and 15 October 2015
During a routine inspection
This inspection was unannounced and took place on the 24 September 2015. Phone calls to the family members of the people living in the home and a visit to the head office of the Lady Verdin Trust [The Trust] to look at training and recruitment records took places on the 2, 9 and 15 October respectively.
Crewe Road is part of the Lady Verdin Trust and is close to shops and other local amenities. It is located in a residential area on the outskirts of Crewe and can provide accommodation for up to four people who require support and care with their daily living. Staff members were available twenty four hours a day. At the time of our visit there were four people living in the house.
Crewe Road 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.
The registered manager, (their job title within the organisation was community services director), did not work in the home on a daily basis. Day to day management was provided by a community support manager who had responsibility for additional services operated by the Trust and a house manager who was solely responsible for Crewe Road.
Because of their communication needs we were unable to ask the people living in the home about whether they thought the staff members supporting them were caring. We did however speak to three family members of the people living in the home and they were very positive about the staff members and their ability to care for their relatives.
The service had a range of policies and procedures which helped staff refer to good practice and included guidance on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. This meant that the staff members were aware of people's rights to make their own decisions. They were also aware of the need to protect people's rights if they had difficulty in making decisions for themselves.
We asked staff members about training and they confirmed that they received regular training throughout the year, they described this as their CPD [continuous professional development] training and that it was up to date.
The care files were reviewed regularly so staff knew what changes in care provision, if any, had been made. The two files we looked at both explained what was important to the individual and how best to support them. This helped to ensure that people’s needs continued to be met.
Staff members we spoke with were positive about how the home was being managed. Throughout the inspection we observed them interacting with each other in a professional manner. All of the staff members we spoke with were positive about the service and the quality of the support being provided.
We found that the provider and the home used a variety of methods in order to assess the quality of the service they were providing to people. These included regular audits on areas such as the care files, including risk assessments, medication, individual finances and staff training. The records were being maintained properly.