Abbey House Residential Care Home

Updated 24 December 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

Abbey House Residential Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Abbey House Residential Care Home is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we held about the service and the service provider. We looked at notifications and any safeguarding alerts we had received for this service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We looked around the service and met with the people who lived there. We spoke with 7 people to understand their views and experiences of the service and we observed how staff supported people. We also 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 spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager and six further staff members.

We reviewed the care records of 5 people and a range of other documents. For example, medicine records, staff training records and records relating to the management of the service. We also looked at staff rotas, and records relating to health and safety.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We spoke with 3 relatives, 2 social workers and 1 health care professionals on the 22 November 2022 to complete the inspection.

Updated 24 December 2022

About the service

Abbey House Residential Care Home provides support to a maximum of 23 people and 12 people were using the service at the time of our inspection. The service is intended for older people, who may be living with a physical disability, sensory impairment or a dementia type illness.

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

People received safe care and support by staff trained to recognise signs of abuse or risk and understood what to do to safely support people. People had care plans and risk assessments which meant peoples’ safety and well-being was promoted and protected. The home was clean, appropriately well-maintained and comfortable. There were enough staff to meet people's needs. Safe recruitment practices had been followed before staff started working at the service. Accidents and incidents were recorded and lessons learnt to prevent re-occurrences.

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.

The providers’ governance systems had improved since the last inspection. systems were being used consistently to drive improvement within the service. Improvements had been made, whilst there were some minor shortfalls regarding documention of medicines, these were adressed immediately and had not impacted on peoples safety and well being.

The home had an effective management team which provided solid leadership for staff and communicated effectively with people, relatives and professionals. The management team was approachable and visable to people, staff and visitors. Staff were positive about their roles in the service and felt that teamwork was good.

The views of people who lived at the home, their relatives and staff were encouraged and acted upon by the management team. People and their relatives felt able to raise any concerns they had and were confident these would receive an appropriate response.

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 good (published 24 May 2019)

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing, moving and handling and safety of people. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

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 remained good.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Abbey House 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.