Amber Wood

Amber Wood is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 45 people. The service provides support to older people, some of whom have mental health needs or are living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 44 people using the service.

Amber Wood accommodates people across three separate households, each of which has separate adapted facilities. There are communal spaces within each household as well as meeting spaces between the households. People are able to move freely between the households if they wish.

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

Systems established to monitor people’s nutrition and weight were not always effective at identifying gaps in recordings. Other systems used for governance and oversight were effective and audits were conducted to ensure people received good quality care that met their needs.

People, relatives and staff spoke positively about the culture of the home and the registered manager. Staff received support from the management team and felt able to share feedback and ideas. The staff team worked in partnership with other agencies to ensure people’s health and care needs were met.

People felt safe living at Amber Wood. Staff had received training to identify concerns for people’s safety and any concerns were reported to the local safeguarding authority. Risks were assessed and managed and staff knew how to support people safely. There were enough staff to respond to people’s care and support needs. Staff had been safely recruited. People received their medicines as prescribed and systems used for the management of medicines were safe and effective. People were supported by staff who were following infection control guidance.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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 5 February 2020).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management of medicines and poor care practices. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Amber Wood on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Amber Wood is a residential care home providing personal care to 28 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service is registered to support up to 45 people over three units known as ‘households’.

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

Staff were aware of people’s risks, and plans were in place to mitigate known risks. People were supported by sufficient numbers of trained staff. People told us they got their medicines on time and medicines were stored and administered safely. Infection control measures were in place and lessons were learnt when things went wrong.

People’s needs were assessed before moving into the service and these assessments were used to create care plans that were reviewed regularly. People were supported to maintain a healthy diet and had access to health care when they needed it. People were supported by staff in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests, and policies and procedures supported this.

People were supported by staff that knew them well and involved them in decisions about their care. Staff promoted people’s dignity and independence.

The registered manager regularly reviewed the quality of the service and encouraged people, their families and staff to feedback about the quality of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 27 November 2018.

Why we inspected

This is the first inspection.