About the service:

Clifton Lodge provides accommodation and personal care for up to 35 older people living with dementia and/or mental health needs. At the time of the inspection there were 30 people living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

Improvements were required to the service’s governance arrangements to assess and monitor the quality of the service, because the current arrangements had not identified the issues we found during our inspection.

Care plans did not adequately address people’s mental healthcare needs and the impact this had on their overall health and wellbeing. People’s end of life care needs were not recorded. Not all risks to people’s safety and wellbeing had been identified. Suitable control measures were not always considered and put in place to mitigate the risk or potential risk of harm for people using the service.

Improvements were required to the service’s medication arrangements as discrepancies relating to staff’s practice and medication records were found. The principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to make a specific decision had not always been assessed and best interest assessments completed.

People told us they were safe and had no concerns about their safety and wellbeing. Suitable arrangements were in place for the recruitment of staff and there were enough staff available to provide the care and support people needed. Staff received regular training opportunities to enable them to meet people’s needs. Newly employed staff received a robust induction and staff told us they were valued and supported; and received regular supervision.

Staff worked well with other organisations to ensure they delivered good joined-up care and support. Individuals were complimentary about the care and support they received and about the staff team and received good person-centred care. People’s healthcare needs were met and people were supported to have access to a variety of healthcare professionals and services as required. The dining experience was positive and people had their nutritional and hydration needs met. People were supported to have their social care needs met and relationships with family and friends maintained.

The service was clean and hygenic and staff followed the service’s infection control policies and procedures.

Rating at last inspection:

This was the service’s first inspection since being newly registered as a care home on 23 November 2017.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection in line with our scheduled programme of inspections.

Improvement action we told the provider to take:

Please see the action we have told the provider to take section towards the end of the report.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we visit again in line with our inspection programme and scheduling. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner. The provider will be required to send us an action plan.