• Care Home
  • Care home

Alexander House Care Home

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Savile Park Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 2XH (01422) 345666

Provided and run by:
Valorum Care Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 6 July 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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

On 15 May 2019 an inspector, an assistant inspector and an Expert by Experience carried out the inspection. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Alexander House 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the provider registered with CQC in May 2018. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about. We also sought feedback from the local authority safeguarding and contracting teams. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 13 people who used the service and two relatives to gain their views on the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager, two senior care staff, a domestic, the cook and the activity organiser.

We reviewed a range of records including two people’s care records. We looked at three staff recruitment files, staff training records, accident, incident and complaint reports, documents relating to the management of medicines and quality monitoring records.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 6 July 2019

About the service

Alexander House is a residential care home that was providing personal and nursing care to 15 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were happy with the care and support they received from staff who knew them well and understood their needs and preferences. Staff were very patient, kind and caring. They treated people with respect and maintained their privacy and dignity.

Staff understood how to manage any risks to people and knew the processes to follow to manage any allegations of abuse.

Care records provided information about people’s needs and preferences; some were more detailed than others. People’s health care and nutritional needs were well managed and they received their medicines when they needed them.

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.

Recruitment processes ensured staff were suitable to work in the care service. Staff were trained and had the required skills to meet people’s needs. Staff told us they loved their jobs and felt well supported.

The service was well organised. Everyone knew the registered manager and praised the management of the home. The registered manager led by example working alongside the staff supporting them and making sure the quality of care was maintained.

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 good (published 22 December 2015). Since this rating was awarded the registered provider of the service has changed. We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Alexander House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information 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.