Oakes Court

Updated 15 May 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of an inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type:

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing. This inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.

At this service, people lived in their own flats and had access to several communal areas where they could reside if they wished to.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. In this case, the registered manager was also the provider. They have therefore been referred to as the provider throughout this report.

Notice of inspection:

The inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

Before the inspection visit to Oakes Court we:

• Reviewed the information we held about the service and the provider. This included any notifications the provider had to send us by law and information we had received from members of the public about the quality of care being provided;

• Reviewed the information the provider had sent to us in their Provider Information Return. Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make;

• Obtained feedback from the commissioners of the service.

During the inspection visit to Oakes Court we:

• Spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager and three care staff;

• Spoke with nine people who received support with their care at the service and three visiting relatives;

• Looked at various records relating to the care that people received which included two people's care records and medicine records. We also looked at a range of records regarding how the registered manager and provider monitored the quality of care people received.

After the inspection visit to Oakes Court:

• the registered manager sent us further information regarding the inspection of the service which we reviewed and have included within this report.

Updated 15 May 2019

About the service:

• Oakes Court is a housing with care scheme that provides personal care to people living in their own flats. At the time of the inspection, 36 people were being supported by the service with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People were safe when staff provided them with care and were overall, happy with the quality of care they received.

• Risks to people’s safety had been assessed and staff acted to protect them from the risk of harm as much as was reasonably practical, whilst being mindful of people’s rights to maintain their independence.

• Staff understood how to protect people from the risk of abuse. Any concerns raised had been reported to the Local Authority for investigation as is required. However, CQC had not always been notified of some important incidents. This is required so the CQC can monitor the quality of care being provided to people.

• People told us there were usually enough staff working at the service to keep them safe and to provide them with support when they required this. However, some of them said improvements could be made regarding the timings of their care visits. The registered manager agreed to investigate this.

• People received their medicines when they needed them, and staff used good practice to protect people from the risk of the spread of infection.

• When things went wrong, the service learnt from this to improve the quality of care people received.

• Staff obtained consent from people before providing them with care. Where people could not consent, staff acted in their best interests in line with the relevant legislation.

• Staff had received enough training and supervision to enable them to provide people with good quality care. They were happy working at the service and felt valued.

• Staff were kind, caring and compassionate towards people. Staff treated people with dignity and respect.

• There was an open culture within the service. People had a voice and could raise their views about the care and support they received. Their suggestions for improvement were listened to and changes made where possible to improve people’s quality of life.

• The registered manager had developed good relationships with other services within the local community to ensure people received support with their healthcare needs and to enhance their wellbeing.

• People told us they felt the service was managed well. The registered manager continually reviewed the service they provided and was keen to introduce new ways of providing care to help improve people’s health and wellbeing.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (Published November 2016)

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the period since the last report was published by CQC.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk