Meadow View Residential Care Home

Updated 10 August 2023

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.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and 2 Experts 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

Meadow View Residential Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Meadow View Residential Care Home is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. However, the manager had initiated their application with us to become the registered manager.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was unannounced. Inspection activity started on 12th and ended on 18th July 2022. We visited the location’s service and spoke to people and relatives on both these dates.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and health care professionals. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 10 people who lived at the service and 13 relatives to gain feedback on the quality of the service provided. We also spoke with a visiting health care professional. At lunch time we observed people’s mealtime experience on both floors. We also observed a morning activity in the garden.

We spoke with 17 staff including the manager, regional manager, 3 team leaders, 5 care staff, an activity coordinator, receptionist, administrator, 2 chefs, head housekeeper and maintenance person.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 6 people’s care records and care notes. We looked at three staff recruitment files. We also saw a variety of records relating to the management of the service, such as health and safety, audits, service’s improvement plan and meeting minutes.

Updated 10 August 2023

About the service

Meadow View Residential Care Home is a residential care home providing personal for up to 60 older people. It can accommodate people who live with dementia and younger adults with a physical disability. There were 52 people living at the service at the time of the inspection.

The service was provided over two floors with lift access. Each floor had its own lounge and dining room, and all bedrooms had an en-suite toilet. There was a well-tended garden surrounded the home.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

Right Support: 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. Improvements had been in ensuring any conditions associated with authorised restrictions were continuously met.

Staff monitored and helped people to access specialist health. There had been an improvement in the detail of the guidance available to staff to ensure people’s needs were consistently met. Care plans included people’s individual choices, preferences and goals. Medicines management had improved so people could be assured they received their medicines when they were needed.

Staff supported people to take part in group and one to one activity, that included their interests. Relatives and people told us that the range and frequency of activities had improved. An initiative had commenced whereby all staff stopped what they were doing each day and went to spend time with people.

The service gave people care and support in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment. Work was underway to refurbish areas of the home. People were able to personalise their rooms.

Right Care: Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

Improvements had been made to assessing potential risks to people and providing guidance to staff to ensure these risks were minimised.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. There had been a significant decrease in agency staff at night-time to help ensure consistent care. Staffing levels were kept under review. People were supported by staff who had been trained in how to care for them. Relatives told us that staff were particularly at supporting people with dementia.

Right Culture: There had been significant changes to the culture of the service driven by the manager. As a result, people benefitted from an open and positive culture service where the management team was approachable and listened and responded to people’s views. The service had received a number of compliments about the positive culture in the service including the following: ‘The care is second to none. My family member has been cared for in the best possible way in all aspects of her life with many of your staff going way beyond their duty of care and I cannot thank them enough. I have always been made welcome when visiting Meadowview often arriving unannounced at various times. Thank you to all at Meadowview please keep up your excellent standards of care.’

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. Staff knew and understood people well.

Quality assurance and monitoring systems had improved and were effective in identify shortfalls and driving through positive changes. People and their relatives’ views were regularly sought and acted on.

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 Requires Improvement (published 11 August 2022). There were 2 breaches of regulation with regards to assessing potential risks, medicines management and oversight of the service. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective, responsive and well-led and the associated breaches of regulation. 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 changed from Requires Improvement to 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 Meadow View Residential Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

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