We inspected Ardenlea Grove on 6 November 2014 as an unannounced inspection. At the last inspection on 13 September 2013 we found there were no breaches in the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Ardenlea Grove is registered to accommodate a maximum of 60 people. It provides nursing care to older people and people living with dementia. On the day of our inspection there were 54 people living at the home.
A requirement of the service’s registration is that they have a registered manager. 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. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager working at the service.
There were enough suitably qualified, skilled and experience staff to meet people’s needs. Staff had the training and support they required to keep their skills up to date.
Suitable arrangements were in place for storing medicines. Medicines were managed safely in accordance with the provider’s policies and procedures.
There were suitable policies and procedures in place in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) to ensure that people who could not make decisions for themselves were protected. We saw that where there were concerns about people’s capacity to make decisions, appropriate assessments had been made.
Staff treated people with dignity and respected their choices about how they wanted to spend their time. People had privacy when they needed it, and could have their relatives visit them when they wished.
People had access to advocacy services when they needed to. An advocate is a designated person who works as an independent advisor in another’s best interest.
Staff were not always responsive to people’s preferences. There was a lack of information in care records detailing people’s preferences for care, which meant their preferences were not always met.
People were supported to take part in interests and hobbies that met their needs.
People were supported to maintain their health and wellbeing through access to healthcare professionals.
Care records were not always up to date. This meant people were not fully protected against the risks of receiving care or treatment that was inappropriate or unsafe.
The provider obtained feedback from people and their relatives about the service to identify where improvements were needed to the quality of service provision.
People were able to make complaints or raise concerns with the provider which were investigated and responded to in a timely way.
Where investigations had been required, for example in response to accidents, incidents or safeguarding alerts, the provider learned from those investigations to minimise the chance of them happening again.
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the report.