Archived: Gregory House II

The service had a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons.’ Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were supported by staff who knew how to recognise abuse and how to respond to concerns. Risks in relation to people’s daily life were assessed and planned for to protect them from harm.

People were supported by enough staff to ensure they received care and support when they needed it. Medicines were managed safely and people received their medicines as prescribed.

People were supported by staff who had the knowledge and skills to provide safe and appropriate care and support. People were supported to make decisions and staff knew how to act if people did not have the capacity to make decisions.

People were supported to maintain their nutrition and staff were monitoring and responding to people’s health conditions.

People lived in a service where staff listened to them and supported them in a way they preferred. People were treated with dignity and respect and knew how to raise concerns if they were unhappy about the way they were supported. People were supported to enjoy a social life.

People were involved in giving their views on how the service was run and there were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided.

We spoke with seven people who received a service and a relative of another. We spoke with the manager and four members of staff. We looked at three people's care records, two staff files and a number of documents relating to the management of the service.

People told us they always felt safe at Gregory House and would speak to staff if they had any worries or problems. The relative we spoke with told us they trusted staff and would have no hesitation to complain to the manager if they felt this was needed.

We saw from care records staff discussed people's needs with them and where appropriate with health and social care professionals and family members. People's specific needs and the support necessary to meet these needs was written in care plans. We saw that these plans accurately reflected assessed need. Care plans were regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in people's needs.

Staff told us how they supported people and worked to ensure they were safe. We saw that staff received the training to provide safe and effective care.

Staff told us that they enjoyed working for the service and felt supported by the manager and colleagues to provide a good quality service.

We saw there were systems in place to record and monitor accidents, incidents and complaints. We noted the service consulted people about the care they received through monthly meetings and individual questionnaires. We noted issues raised by people had been addressed through these systems.

People told us and we saw that a limited range of day time and evening activities were organised within the care home. We discussed this with the manager who acknowledged people's comments.

We were told by people using the service that staff had the right skills to support them and they were mostly satisfied living at the home. Our evidence supported what people had told us however we also found that more could be done to listen to the views of people who used the service because we found there was a lack of effective monitoring of the quality of the service that people received in some areas.