Care Home: Little Oaks Residential Home

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What the care home does well The home provides people wishing to use the service with good up to date information and a pre-admission assessment is carried out by the care manager or the proprietor. The staff team are competent and well trained and have a good knowledge of people`s needs. Little Oaks provide people with comfortable, homely accommodation. The care manager is aware of any improvements that need to be made and takes action to ensure that the improvements are carried out. What the care home could do better: The care plans should include more detailed information to ensure that staff are clear on what they should and should not do when supporting people with their everyday needs. Random inspection report Care homes for older people Name: Address: Little Oaks Residential Home Braxted Road Little Braxted Witham Essex CM8 3ED two star good service The quality rating for this care home is: The rating was made on: A quality rating is our assessment of how well a care home, agency or scheme is meeting the needs of the people who use it. We give a quality rating following a full review of the service. We call this review a ‘key’ inspection. This is a report of a random inspection of this care home. A random inspection is a short, focussed review of the service. Details of how to get other inspection reports for this care home, including the last key inspection report, can be found on the last page of this report. Lead inspector: Pauline Marshall Date: 1 0 0 6 2 0 1 0 Information about the care home Name of care home: Address: Little Oaks Residential Home Braxted Road Little Braxted Witham Essex CM8 3ED 01621891974 Telephone number: Fax number: Email address: Provider web address: Name of registered provider(s): Name of registered manager (if applicable) Mr John Rand Valentine,Mrs Gillian Elaine Valentine Type of registration: Number of places registered: Conditions of registration: Category(ies) : care home 13 Number of places (if applicable): Under 65 Over 65 13 old age, not falling within any other category Conditions of registration: 0 Persons of either sex, aged 65 years and over, who require care by reason of old age only (not to exceed 13 persons) Date of last inspection Brief description of the care home Little Oaks is an adapted detached property situated in the village of Little Braxted and close to Wickham Bishop. The home is in a rural setting but is near to a bus route. The nearest town is Witham where there are facilities such as shops, pubs, banks, supermarkets, a library and a post office. Care Homes for Older People Page 2 of 8 Brief description of the care home Accommodation for people at the home is provided on two floors and consists of twelve single rooms; all have en-suite WC facilities. A lounge/dining room overlooks the rear garden, which is private and secure. The home has a passenger lift. The home provides accommodation for older people with low to medium dependency levels. The aim of the home is for residents to live as independently as possible and be fully supported in their physical, emotional and social needs. The fees range from £380.00 to £585.00 depending on the source of funding. The cost of newspapers, toiletries, hairdressing and chiropody is additional. Inspection reports are available from the home and from the CQC website www.cqc.org.uk Care Homes for Older People Page 3 of 8 What we found: This was an unannounced random inspection which lasted for three hours and fifteen minutes. We did a tour of the premises and looked at a random sample of the homes records including the medication records, the staff duty rota, one of the care files and one of the staff files. We spoke to the people living in the home and to some of the homes staff. Initially, we were assisted by the person in charge of the shift as the care manager had worked the previous night and joined us later in the morning. We received a completed annual quality assurance assessment (AQAA), which had been fully completed by the care manager. The AQAA is a self assessment document that the manager is required by law to complete. We sent surveys to people that use the service and to some of the homes staff and we received a good response that contained many positive comments about Little Oaks. Comments from staff members included Little Oaks provides a good standard of care and people are well looked after. We are always offered lots of training and are kept up to date if anything changes. We get good support from management and communication and training is good; we meet all residents needs and new starters and visitors are always made to feel welcome. People living in the home told us that the staff are nice and that they are treated well and offered a choice of meals and activities and that they are very happy. One person told us that they had lived at Little Oaks for twenty-two years and that they were satisfied with the service that they received. Another person said in their survey I am well looked after in all ways and am very pleased with the service; they do everything well. The care manager has recently applied to be registered with the Commission and she told us that all of the polices and procedures are under review and that she has recently made changes to her complaints and safeguarding policies to ensure that they meet the required standards. We looked at one of the care plans and we found that it did not fully describe the level of help that the person needed. The care plan was dated 2010; it did not show the day or the month but it did show that regular monthly reviews had taken place and any changes had been identified and implemented. The care manager told us that the current people living at Little Oaks are able to communicate their needs clearly and the staff are fully aware of the level of assistance that people need; this was confirmed when speaking to people. The care manager told us that the homes care planning system is currently under review and that the new format will include much more detail on the level of assistance that people require. We looked at the homes medication system and we found that there were good practices in place for ordering and storing medication, however, the system for returning any unused or unwanted medication was not satisfactory. The person in charge of the shift explained the medication system to us and told us that any unused or unwanted medication is returned to the pharmacy but no record of the returned medication was kept. The person in charge of the shift immediately devised a recording system to ensure that all future unused or unwanted medication is accounted for and has since confirmed that a check has been carried out and that the new system is now in place. Care Homes for Older People Page 4 of 8 The care manager told us in her AQAA that nine staff had achieved or were working towards their NVQ level 2 or above and we found that this had now been increased to ten staff. The AQAA showed that there had been many improvements to the home since the last inspection including a newly landscaped driveway. People have good access to a pleasant well designed garden where there are shrubs and plants that are tended to by one of the people living in the home. This person told us that they really enjoy buying and planting flowers and plants and that they are supported and encouraged to do so and they also told us that they have a vegetable garden where they are growing lettuces, radishes and tomatoes. There are two empty rooms at Little Oaks, which are in the process of being refurbished before they become occupied. The home is undergoing a programme of improvements and has a new conservatory looking out into the garden, a new therapy room and a new hairdressing room. It was clear from the staff records that we looked at that staff had received a good amount of training since the last inspection and this included moving and handling, safeguarding adults, first aid, fire awareness, health and safety, food hygiene and medication. The care manager identified in her AQAA that supervision needs to be undertaken more regularly and the records that we looked at confirmed this. The care manager has devised a supervision schedule to ensure that staff receive supervision at least six times a year as required in the National Minimum Standards. The last key inspection took place on 18/09/2007 and Little Oaks was rated a good service. Annual service reviews took place on 17/09/2008 and 08/09/2009 and no concerns were identified that would alter this rating. What the care home does well: What they could do better: If you want to know what action the person responsible for this care home is taking following this report, you can contact them using the details set out on page 2. Care Homes for Older People Page 5 of 8 Are there any outstanding requirements from the last inspection? Yes £ No R Outstanding statutory requirements These are requirements that were set at the previous inspection, but have still not been met. They say what the registered person had to do to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. No. Standard Regulation Requirement Timescale for action Care Homes for Older People Page 6 of 8 Requirements and recommendations from this inspection: Immediate requirements: These are immediate requirements that were set on the day we visited this care home. The registered person had to meet these within 48 hours. No. Standard Regulation Requirement Timescale for action Statutory requirements These requirements set out what the registered person must do to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must do this within the timescales we have set. No. Standard Regulation Requirement Timescale for action Recommendations These recommendations are taken from the best practice described in the National Minimum Standards and the registered person(s) should consider them as a way of improving their service. No Refer to Standard Good Practice Recommendations 1 7 It is recommended that the care manager continues with the development of the care plans to ensure that staff are clear on what they should and should not do when supporting people with their everyday needs. Care Homes for Older People Page 7 of 8 Reader Information Document Purpose: Author: Audience: Further copies from: Inspection Report Care Quality Commission General Public 0870 240 7535 (telephone order line) Our duty to regulate social care services is set out in the Care Standards Act 2000. Copies of the National Minimum Standards –Care Homes for Older People can be found at www.dh.gov.uk or got from The Stationery Office (TSO) PO Box 29, St Crispins, Duke Street, Norwich, NR3 1GN. Tel: 0870 600 5522. Online ordering from the Stationery Office is also available: www.tso.co.uk/bookshop Helpline: Telephone: 03000 616161 Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk Web: www.cqc.org.uk We want people to be able to access this information. 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