The Care Quality Commission

Archived: Alison House Rest Home

7 Newton Street, Basford, Stoke On Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 6JN (01782) 632698

Provided and run by:
Mr Sunil Odedra and Mrs Shanti Odedra

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

All Inspections

8 February 2013

During a routine inspection

We carried out this unannounced inspection to check on the care and welfare of people who used the service as part of our planned schedule of inspections. People we spoke with said, "It's lovely here, it's brilliant, everything is wonderful". "I'm comfortable" and "The 'girls' are great".

At the time of the inspection Alison House was providing accommodation and support for 19 people and the provider was in the process of extending the home to provide five additional bedrooms and additional lounge space. This meant that three of the bedrooms were not being used as they were affected by the building work.

Most people using the service had dementia related conditions and were not able to communicate effectively with us. To ensure they were receiving the support they needed we observed how staff interacted with them and the care practice in the home.

We saw that people were included in making decisions and to make choices about the care they received. We saw the care records included all the relevant information about how people needed to be supported and how risks had been assessed.

Staff understood their responsibilities to recognise and protect people from the risk of potential abuse. The staff we spoke with told us they had received the training they needed to deliver safe and personalised care.

Complaints processes were in place and people and relatives we spoke with confirmed that they knew how to make a complaint.

19 January 2011 and 7 February 2012

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out this inspection because we had not visited the service for some time and we did not have enough information about the service to assess compliance. We wanted to see what life was like for the people who lived in the home.

During our visit we were accompanied by an expert by experience. An expert by experience is some one who uses services, or has had experience of services. They are people of all ages, with different experiences and from diverse cultural backgrounds. They help us improve the way we inspect and write our reports. Our expert by experience talked to people using the service individually, looked at what happened around the home and saw how everyone was getting on together and what the home felt like. They took some notes and wrote a report about what they found and details are included in this report. Their comments included "People were well cared for physically, but that they would benefit from being given more opportunities for exercising personal choices and being enabled to have more say and involvement in aspects of their daily lives. At times staff appear to issue instructions, or carry out routine tasks with individuals without using these opportunities for one-to-one stimulating dialogue and interaction."

At the time of our visit the service was providing care and accommodation for 24 people. We saw that people had care plans in place and the records we looked at showed that people had been involved in the assessment of their care needs.

People told us they were happy living at the home, they showed that they were able to choose what they wanted to do and the meals they had. People said "Marvellous ' couldn't wish for better. The food's great and we have singsong's, bingo and skittles". "Anything on the menu I don't like they don't give it to you".

Before our visit we contacted other people who may have had an interest in the service such as fire safety officers, environmental health, and local involvement networks (LINks). LINks are groups of individual members of the public and local voluntary and community groups who work together to improve health and social care services. To do this they gather the views of local people. No concerns were identified by any of these agencies.