Archived: Snowdon

Updated 4 September 2019

The inspection

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

Inspection team

One inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

Snowdon is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

Before the inspection

We used the information the registered manager sent us in the provider information return (PIR) in June 2019. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We reviewed the evidence we had about the service. This included any notifications of significant events, such as serious injuries or safeguarding referrals. Notifications are information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who lived at the home and five staff, including the registered manager, three residential recovery workers and one senior residential recovery worker.

We checked care records for three people, including their assessments, care plans and risk assessments. We looked at four staff files and records of team meetings and shift plans. We also checked medicines management, accident and incident records, quality monitoring checks and audits.

Updated 4 September 2019

Snowdon is a residential recovery-based service which supports up to eight people who have a primary diagnosis of a mental health condition. Placements at the service ranged from six months to a maximum of approximately two years. There were eight people living at the service at the time of our inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were supported to develop the skills they needed to move on to more independent living. The support people received was tailored to their individual needs and wishes. With the support of staff, people had become independent in areas such as cooking, budgeting and managing their medicines.

Staff also supported people to identify and work towards individual goals they wished to achieve. These goals included obtaining independent accommodation, gaining employment and maintaining relationships.

Staff supported people to maintain good physical and mental health and worked effectively with other professionals involved in people’s care. This included supporting people to attend appointments to express their views and to understand information about their care and treatment.

Staff had an induction when they joined the service and received the training and support they needed to carry out their roles. They understood their responsibility to keep people safe from abuse and felt able to speak up about any concerns they had.

There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Potential risks to people had been assessed and plans put in place to mitigate these. If accidents or incidents occurred, staff took action to reduce the risk of similar incidents happening again. Medicines were managed safely.

Staff treated people with dignity and respected their decisions about their support. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People had opportunities to give their views about the service and the support they received. House meetings took place regularly and people were encouraged to contribute to their reviews and meetings with their keyworker.

The service had effective leadership and management. The registered manager was available to people and provided good support to staff. The registered manager and the provider maintained an effective oversight of the service.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection in 1 December 2016 the service was rated Good. The report of this inspection was published on 8 February 2017.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.