This inspection took place on 3 February 2017 and was unannounced. Riverside Care Home provides residential and nursing care for up to 42 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia. There were 38 people resident at the time of our inspection. This was the first inspection of this service.The manager had submitted an application to us and this was in the process of being reviewed so they could become the 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.
Medicine management systems were not always safe. Information about medicines was not always available to ensure people received their medicines. Medication records were not completed to ensure checks could be made that people had received their prescribed medicines.
The provider had reviewed the staffing levels provided. We saw there were sufficient staff working although at certain times of the day, especially at lunch time, the way staff were deployed meant that staff were busy and were not always able to meet people’s needs in a timely manner.
The care records did not always have the information needed for staff to provide effective care for people. Staff had not received all the necessary training they needed to support people. New staff were not provided with an opportunity to gain experience and get to know people before working as a member of the staff team.
Staff sought people’s consent before they provided care and support. However, where some people may lack capacity, assessments had not always been completed to ensure decisions were only made by others when they lacked capacity to make decisions themselves. Applications to authorise restrictions to keep people safe were not always appropriate where people had capacity.
Quality assurance systems were in place, however these were not always effective as they had not identified concerns with medicine management, how decisions were made, how staffing was deployed and how people agreed and developed their support plans.
People were able to comment about the quality of the service. However, where concerns had been identified with gaining entry to the home, this had not always been resolved to people’s satisfaction.
Staff had a good understanding and knowledge of safeguarding people and understood what constituted abuse or poor practice. Where harm or abuse was suspected, the staff knew how to respond to protect people.
Where people needed to have their food and drink monitored, systems were in place to ensure health support was sought promptly. Staff liaised with people’s GP’s and other healthcare professionals to meet people’s changing needs.
People had opportunities to take part in a variety of activities and could choose if they wanted to be involved. People had developed good relationships with staff and were treated with kindness, compassion and respect. People maintained relationships with their families and friends.
We found a number of breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.