The Avenue Community Nursing Home

Updated 28 January 2022

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice is safe and that services are compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 12/01/2022 and was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Updated 28 January 2022

About the service

The Avenue Community Nursing Home is a care home providing personal and nursing care for up to13 adults in one large, adapted house. The home provided care and support to people who were living with mental health conditions. At the time of inspection the service was supporting 13 people.

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

People and their relatives were very positive about the service and the care provided. One person said, "This is the best place I have ever lived, staff are amazing.”

People were cared for by staff who knew them very well. The staff team were consistent, experienced and had the skills to support people appropriately. Staff understood their responsibilities for keeping people safe whilst also supporting people to have choice and be independent. Incidents and accidents were investigated and actions were taken to prevent reoccurrence.

People's care and support needs were assessed and they received person-centred support from staff who understood their needs well. People were involved in reviewing their care plans and they were detailed and up to date.

Staff were caring and there was a homely and relaxed atmosphere throughout the home. The home was clean and tidy. People were cared for in a warm and respectful manner by all staff. People felt listened to and were actively involved in the day to day running of the home and the local community.

The service was responsive to people's health and social care needs. Medicines were managed safely and there were close links with health and social care professionals to ensure people's physical and mental health needs were met and changes responded to quickly.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. When people were unable to make decisions about their care and support, the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) were followed.

The service was well-led. The management team were praised by people, their relatives and staff, for their supportive approach. Systems were in place to monitor the quality of care provided and continuously improve the service. The management team and staff worked extremely closely with health professionals to achieve positive outcomes for people’s health and wellbeing.

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 29 July 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.