Oak Vale Gardens

Updated 15 June 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:

This inspection was carried out by an adult social care inspector and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type:

Oak Vale Gardens is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. 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 carried out on 14 May 2019 and was unannounced.

What we did:

As part of planning the inspection we looked at information the provider had sent us in their 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 any improvements they plan to make. We looked at information we held about the service as part of our ingoing monitoring; including any statutory notifications sent to us by the provider about incidents and events that had occurred at the service. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We also asked the local authority their views of the home.

During the inspection we spoke with two people living at the home, a relative of one person and met with several other people living there. We spent time observing daily life at the home and people’s interactions. We spoke with nine members of staff and with a visiting professional. Following the inspection we emailed commissioners of services at the home and received two replies.

We looked at records including those related to recruitment and training of staff ,audits, medication and care plans for four people.

Updated 15 June 2019

About the service: Oak Vale Gardens is a care home that was registered to provide personal and nursing care and accommodation, treatment of disease, disorder and injury and diagnostic and screening procedures for up to 18 people. It provides support to people who have a brain injury. At the time of the inspection there were 16 people living at the home.

People’s experience of using this service:

Oak Vale Gardens in a care home that supports people who have had a brain injury. It aims to support people for a period of two years or less and as such does not consider itself a long term home for people but a treatment centre. People are able to stay there until such a time as they have regained as many skills and independence as possible. If possible, people are supported to visit their family home whilst staying at Oak Vale Gardens or to actively look for a new long term home when ready to move on.

Some people told us that they liked living there and had seen an improvement in their independence and skills due to the treatment and support they had received. Other people could not communicate verbally with us, however their non-verbal communication showed that they felt relaxed and confident around all members of the staff team.

People were protected from abuse and the risk of harm. Staff understood their responsibilities for keeping people safe and reporting any concerns that arose. Risks for individuals were identified and action taken to minimise them. People got their medication on time and as prescribed.

Robust recruitment practices were followed to check staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people. Staff enjoyed working at the home and took pride in supporting people with their everyday lives and to regain skills. They understood their roles and responsibilities and had received training to help them support people safely in line with best practice guidance. There was enough staff available to provide the support people needed.

A multi-disciplinary team worked at Oak Vale Gardens. Staff also worked well with outside professionals in supporting people. Staff said they felt part of the wider team and it was clear from records that the team worked well with other professionals to gain the best outcomes for people living there.

Staff understood and respected people’s right to make decisions. Where people had their liberty legally restricted, every effort was made to support the person to take part in decision making. Staff were respectful when supporting people and skilled at changing their approach in accordance with people’s individual choices and communication styles.

A clear management structure and experienced registered manager provided good role models within the home and kept a focus on supporting people as individuals to continually improve the quality of their lives.

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 4 November 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: ongoing monitoring;

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