Archived: Leftwich Community Support Centre

Updated 13 August 2016

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 was carried out by a team of two adult social care inspectors.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The PIR was returned to us when we asked and we used this information in the planning of this inspection.

Before our visit, we reviewed all the information we had in relation to the service. This included notifications, comments, concerns and safeguarding information. Our visit involved looking at three care plans and other records such as five staff recruitment files, training records, policies and procedures, quality assurance audits and complaints files.

We spoke with the Local Authority Commissioning Team and the Local Authority Safeguarding Team. They had no concerns about the service.

We checked to see if a Healthwatch visit had taken place. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion created to gather and represent the views of the public. They have powers to enter registered services and comment on the quality of care provided. Healthwatch had not visited Leftwich.

We spoke to three people who used the service, one visitor and three members of staff. We also spoke to a visiting professional. We spoke with the Registered Manager as well as the new manager who intended to apply for registration with us to become the registered manager.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We toured the premises. This was done to ensure that standards of hygiene and decoration were being maintained.

Updated 13 August 2016

We carried out an unannounced inspection of Leftwich Community Support Centre on the 18 July 2016.

Leftwich Community Support Centre is a short stay and respite service, where people stay for a short period of time and do not live there permanently. They are registered to provide accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care for up to 31 people. On the day of our visit, 20 people were staying at Leftwich.

The home is situated in its own grounds in a residential area of Leftwich, close to Northwich town centre.

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.

Records were not always consistently completed. These related to documents relating to consent, risk assessments and fluid charts. This demonstrated a potential flaw in the auditing of records which could have posed a risk to the wellbeing of people.

People told us they felt safe staying at Leftwich and were happy with the service they were provided with. They told us they felt cared about and were positive about the approach of the staff team.

Medication was well managed and promoted the health of people who used the service

People lived in an environment that was clean and hygienic. The environment was designed to enable people to move independently and remain safe.

The registered provider demonstrated that staff received up to date training on topics which related to the needs of people.

Staff demonstrated a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and associated safeguards.

We made a recommendation at our last visit about the activities programme. On that occasion we saw that there were no planned activities in place. We saw that improvements had been made with people who used the service telling us that there were planned activities in place which they could pursue if they wanted to. We saw evidence of a weekly activities programme as well as photographs of key events that had happened in Leftwich during the year.

Care plans were available and outlined each person’s health and social needs. Care plans were reviewed regularly.

People did not have any complaints but were aware of who to speak with if the need arose. A complaints procedure was in place and where complaints had been made; there was evidence that these had been investigated fully.

Our last visit noted that while a registered manager was in place, they were not in day to day control of the service. We concluded that the service was not well led as a result. Since our last visit, a new manager had been appointed. This person was also the nominated individual. Given this, a new manager had been appointed from within the service yet had yet to make an application with us to become registered. This new manager was working alongside the current registered manager. The staff team were complimentary about the management team and considered that the service was well led. Improvements made since our last visit indicated that the management team had taken their regulatory responsibilities into account.

The current registered manager undertook audits of medication, health and safety issues and care plans. The views of people were sought through a questionnaire. The results of these were available and indicated a positive view of the service that people had received.