17 December 2020
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Arlington House is a residential care home providing personal care to a maximum of 33 people. The home is an adapted building combining four terraced houses with care provided over three floors. At the time of the inspection 23 people were living at the home. The people living there are older people with a range of health and mental health needs including people living with dementia.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and their relatives told us they were happy with the service they received. They described the care workers as kind and caring, and said the management team were visible, proactive and committed. One person said, “It’s a family business and the home is like a family.”
The registered manager had addressed the areas identified for improvement following the last inspection. For example, systems for safeguarding people from abuse had been reviewed and were now robust. Incidents were reviewed and safeguarding concerns had been appropriately identified and escalated in line with the provider’s policy.
Systems for monitoring quality and managing risks had been improved and embedded. There were robust arrangements to support governance and to provide management oversight. People told us they were happy with the care they received, and that staff helped them to feel safe.
Risk assessments and care plans guided staff in how to provide care safely and in the way the person preferred. There were enough suitable staff employed to ensure people were safe.
Appropriate infection control procedures for the Covid 19 pandemic were in place to keep people safe. Staff had received additional training and used appropriate Personal Protective Equipment.
People and relatives were happy with how responsive staff were to their needs. Staff and management knew people well and were proactive in responding to changing health and care needs.
People and their loved ones were happy with the managements approach to their relatives care and told us they were approachable, dedicated and caring.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement, report published 16 May 2019. They were in breach of regulation 13 (Safeguarding) and 18 (Staffing) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection, enough improvement had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Responsive which contain those requirements. We also looked at the Key Question of Well-led.
The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Arlington House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.