Abbey Place provides residential care for up to 38 older people who may also be living with dementia. Accommodation is provided across two floors and there is lift access.

We inspected this service on 28 September 2016. The inspection was unannounced. This meant the manager and staff did not know we would be visiting. At the time of our inspection, there were 33 people using the service.

The service was registered under a new provider in September 2015 and this was our first inspection of this service with the new registered provider.

The registered provider is required to have a registered manager in post as a condition of their registration. On the day of the inspection there was a manager in post and they were in the process of applying to become the home’s registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

We received positive feedback about the manager and their management of the service. There was a positive atmosphere within the service, staff told us they worked well as a team and felt well supported in their role. People who used the service were positive about the care and support provided at Abbey Place. There were systems in place for the manager and registered provider to monitor the quality and effectiveness of the care and support provided and work was on-going to address minor issues we identified during the course of our inspection.

During our inspection we found that the service was safe. There were systems in place to support staff to identify and appropriately respond to safeguarding concerns. Potential risks to people who used the service were identified and detailed risk assessments put in place to guide staff on how to provide safe care and support. Where an accident or incident had occurred, there was a clear audit trail evidencing the appropriate action taken by staff both in response to the concerns and to minimise any future risks of a similar incident occurring.

Appropriate recruitment checks were completed to ensure suitable staff were employed. We found there was sufficient staff employed to meet people’s needs. However, we made a recommendation about monitoring staff deployment, particularly at lunchtime, to ensure people’s needs were met in a timely manner.

Checks of the building and any equipment used were completed to ensure these were in safe working order. People received safe support to take their prescribed medicines.

People who used the service were positive about the skills and training of the staff supporting them. Staff received an induction, training and on-going supervision to enable them to provide effective care and support. Although some training needed to be updated, this was being addressed at the time of our inspection. We have made a recommendation about staff training in our report.

Staff sought consent from people who used the service to provide care. People were supported to make decisions. Where people lacked mental capacity, their human rights were protected in line with relevant legislation and guidance.

We received generally positive feedback about the food provided and saw that people were supported to eat and drink enough. Support was provided, where necessary, for people who used the service to access healthcare services.

People who used the service and relatives we spoke with told us staff were kind and caring. We observed staff were friendly, attentive and patient when providing care and support. People who used the service had developed positive caring relationships with staff. Staff listened to people who used the service and encouraged and supported them to make decisions.

There were systems in place to assess and record people’s needs to su

When we visited the home in November 2013 we found people were not protected from the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment because accurate and appropriate records were not maintained. We asked the provider to make improvements.

We returned on this inspection to check whether improvements had been made.

On the day of our inspection there were 52 people living at the home and we looked at the care records of four people. We saw each person had their own care and treatment plan. The care plans we looked at provided staff with clear guidance on how to meet the person's needs.

We also looked at the daily communication records staff had completed for each of the four people. Within each record we looked at we saw, staff had recorded what the person had eaten and drunk at each mealtime, the level of personal care they had received and how they were cared for at night. This showed accurate and up to date records were being maintained.

When we visited the home in June 2013 we found there were issues of concern in relation to how people were being cared for, training and support staff received and how the quality of the service was assessed and monitored.

We told the provider we were concerned and improvements were needed. We returned on this inspection to check whether improvements had been made.

We found that improvements had been made in all areas of which we were concerned on the previous inspection.

At the time of our inspection there were 50 people living at the home. We saw that people were spoken to in a respectful manner by staff working at the home. We spent time observing care and saw staff encouraging people to live as independently as possible by involving them in daily care routines. We spoke with seven staff and it was clear from our discussions they knew the people well. We also spoke with four people who lived at the home and they all told us they were happy with the care they received.

We looked at training and supervision records of staff and saw that staff had received training to carry out their role. We also saw that staff were receiving regular supervision with the home manager. This meant staff were now receiving appropriate support and professional development.

We saw that the home were now investigating and learning from incidents that occurred. This meant people living at the home were safe and protected from risks of unsafe care.

In this report the name of a Registered Manager appears who was not in post and not managing the regulatory activities at this location at the time of the inspection. Their name appears because they were still a Registered Manager on our register at the time.

When we visited the home we observed that staff were respectful of people when they were talking with them. However, we observed practices that showed very little regard for people. Some of the people who lived at the home didn’t look well cared for. We saw other people with food stains on their faces and clothing, dirty nails, unwashed and uncared for hair and several people smelled strongly of urine. We saw that people did not have the toiletries they needed to maintain their personal care needs. Following our visit we made a whole service referral to the safeguarding team because we had concerns about people’s care and welfare and lack of staff. This meant that someone external to the service will look at the issues we had raised.

We brought forward the planned unannounced annual inspection due to receiving anonymous information which concerned us. The information was in relation to the standards of care people living at Abbey Place were receiving.

All the people who use the service and or their representatives that we spoke with told us that they were involved in their care, their preferences sought and taken into consideration in helping them to live as independently as they wished. At the time of our visit, we were able to speak with three people who use the services and they told us staff looked after them well. They felt comfortable and safe living at the home.

Orchard Care Homes.com (3) Limited purchased Abbey place care home and was registered at the end of September 2011.

On the day of the visit the project manager was in charge. The company has recently recruited a new manager and they are currently going through the recruitment procedure prior to starting work.

People who use the service were not able to tell us about their views of the service they receive however, staff observed had good relationships with these people and they were seen to have their privacy and dignity respected.

We spoke to people who live at the service and their relatives. They made positive comments about the staff and management of the home.

People told us that there were enough staff on duty, and they didn’t have to wait to be attended to. People said that staff were kind and helpful, and they were approachable if they had any concerns or complaints.

People said the food was lovely and always hot and that there were offered regular drinks and snacks.