23 August 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Autumn House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 44 older people many of whom had dementia. At the time of this inspection there were 40 people living at the home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Most people and their family members gave us positive feedback about the home and told us staff were kind and caring. We observed positive communication between staff and people.
There were usually enough staff to support people's needs and the provider was recruiting further staff to increase staffing levels especially at night. Appropriate recruitment procedures had generally been followed to help ensure only suitable staff were employed. Staff had received training and support to enable them to carry out their role safely.
Systems were in place so that medicines were administered safely and as prescribed which staff usually followed. The manager had taken action to improve the meals being provided. Infection prevention and control measures were in place and followed government guidance.
Individual and most environmental risks were assessed and managed appropriately. People had access to any necessary equipment where needed, which helped ensure people were safe from harm.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
There were appropriate policies and systems in place to protect people from the risk of abuse and the management team and staff understood the actions they should take to keep people safe.
Care plans contained detailed relevant information about people's health and social care support needs. People and, where appropriate family members, were involved in the development of care plans. People were able to access health and social care professionals if needed.
The management team carried out regular checks on the quality and safety of the service and understood their regulatory responsibilities. People, their family members and external professionals said the manager was approachable and supportive. Staff were also positive about the manager.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 30 March 2021). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
At our last inspection we recommended that the provider review local safeguarding adults board procedures to ensure robust processes are in place to safeguard people from abuse. At this inspection we found appropriate action had been taken.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Autumn House Residential Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.