24 April 2015
During a routine inspection
Cheverels Care Home with Nursing was last inspected on 21 November 2013. The home was found not to be meeting all requirements in the areas inspected. We told the provider that improvements were required in the training provided to staff, the standard of record keeping and the systems in place to protect people against the risk of inappropriate or unsafe care and treatment. The provider wrote to us and told us the necessary improvements would be completed by 12 February 2014. We found the necessary improvements had been made.
When we visited there was no registered manager in post. The last manager left the service in February 2014. 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.
Cheverels Care Home with Nursing provides care and support for up to 16 older people. At the time of the inspection there were nine people living at the home.
The provider had systems in place to ensure the quality of the service was regularly reviewed and improvements were made. This meant that the care and support people received were regularly audited and areas for improvement recognised. The staff knew people’s needs well and the records relating to people’s care and support were up to date.
People could not fully tell us about how they experienced the support on offer but one person told us it was “nice here”. Relatives told us about how the staff looked after people and that people were treated with a great deal of kindness. They told us they considered people were safe living at Cheverals. We observed this to be the case.
Staff knew people’s routines and respected them. People’s care records confirmed what staff had told us about people’s preferred lifestyle. We observed that staff knew how to support people when they became anxious and had effective ways of supporting them.
The provider was meeting the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and assessments of people’s capacity had consistently been made. The staff at the home understood some of the concepts of the Act, such as people’s rights to make decisions for themselves.
The staff demonstrated a caring and compassionate approach to people living at the home. The atmosphere at the home was relaxed and staff and people living at the home appeared comfortable in each other’s company. People were offered choices at mealtimes such as where to sit and what to eat and the size of portion. This helped ensure people enjoyed their food and mealtimes were a pleasant experience
Relatives told us there were enough staff to meet people’s needs. The provider was able to demonstrate that additional staff were available to support people should their needs change or if extra support was required. There were activities provided and a weekly bus trip to local attractions
The staff told us they worked well as a team and enjoyed working at the home. They told us there was enough flexibility within their working hours to sit and talk with people and to do things that they knew interested them.