Archived: The Bungalow

There was no registered manager in place, although there was a manager in place who has applied to the Commission and is having their interview with us shortly. 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.

This inspection took place on 7 December 2015 and was unannounced.

The service had robust systems in place to maintain people’s safety at all times. Risk assessments were carried out to identify and minimise risks to people.

People were safe because staff supported them to keep safe and staff knew how to manage risk effectively. Recruitment practices ensured staff were suitable to work with adults at risk. There were sufficient numbers of care staff with the correct skills and knowledge to keep people safe.

Medicines were administered, recorded and stored in line with company policy and good practice. Staff were aware of the importance of medicines management and showed knowledge of the medicines they administered and their purpose.

Staff underwent a comprehensive induction period and ongoing training which enabled them to effectively support people in their care.

People and their relatives were involved in making decisions about their care and support. Their care plans were individual and contained information about how they preferred to communicate and their ability to make decisions. The service was aware of and met the legal obligations around mental capacity and deprivation of liberty.

Staff had good relationships with people who used the service and were attentive to their needs. People’s privacy and dignity was respected. People were encouraged to take part in activities that they enjoyed, and were supported to keep in contact with family members. When needed, they were supported to see health professionals and referrals were put through to ensure they had the appropriate care and treatment.

Relatives and staff were complimentary about the management of the service. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities in providing safe and good quality care to the people who used the service.

The management team had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided.

Processes were in place to ensure that people were supported to make informed choices about the care they received. Risks to people's safety were assessed and recorded.

Each person living in the home had a detailed plan of care in place that included their individual needs and wishes and also recorded people's physical and emotional healthcare needs.

The staff team were trained in protecting people from risk of abuse or harm and those that spoke with us were aware of their responsibilities to ensure that care was provided in a safe manner.

Staff were well supported by the manager and received training specific to the people they were supporting. A staff member told us. 'We have very good training and support and the manager is very accessible and helpful.'

Complaints and concerns were recorded and investigated appropriately and within the home's published timescales.

A family member told us. 'People are very well cared for indeed, the manager and staff are lovely and I couldn't wish for a better place for my son.'

Care plans provided clear details about the care and support each person needed which included individual choices of each person.

We spoke with relatives of three people who lived at the home. They all expressed satisfaction with the care and support their family member received at The Bungalow. This included staff respecting the choices of people who lived at the home and staff being able to recognise when a person was not well and effectively support them to access appropriate medical care and treatment. They told us that they had confidence that any concerns or complaints would be dealt with promptly and effectively.