Cottage Farm Lodge is an ‘extra care’ housing scheme. People live in their own homes where care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate the premises used for extra care housing. We only inspect the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to washing, dressing and eating.

Cottage Farm provides personal care and support to people within a complex of 30 one-bedroom flats. Five of which are short stay, to assist people to come out of hospital for a period of assessment before they return home or to alternative accommodation. The flats are arranged over two floors with a lift and stairs to each floor. Staff provide care at pre-arranged times and people have access to call bells for staff to respond whenever additional help is required. People also have access to a communal lounge and a dining room.

Not everyone living at Cottage Farm Lodge received personal care. At the time of our visit 22 people were in receipt of personal care from the provider. People received varying levels of personal care and support depending on their needs. Some people required minimal assistance with personal care. Others required assistance with showering/bathing, mobility continence care, administration of medication, and nutritional support.

At our last comprehensive inspection of this service in February 2016, we rated the service as 'Good'. At this inspection, we found the service continued to be safe, effective, caring. responsive and well-led. The rating remains Good.

The service had a 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.

People felt safe living at Cottage Farm Lodge and staff understood how to keep people safe from avoidable harm and abuse. Risks associated with people’s care were identified and plans were in place to inform staff how to manage risks. Where people required support to take prescribed medicines, staff had received training to assist people safely.

There were enough trained, experienced staff available to meet people's assessed needs and to allocate all the visits people required. Recruitment checks were completed on new staff to ensure they were suitable to support people who used the service.

People were visited by a team of staff that they knew and who stayed long enough to do everything people needed without having to rush. People said staff were kind and considerate, and respected their privacy.

People's right to make their own decisions about their care were supported by managers and staff who understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act. The managers and staff had provided very effective support to people who made unwise decisions due to alcohol dependency.

People were provided with care and support which was individual to them. People could live their lives in the way they chose and were supported to live as independently as possible. When needed, arrangements were in place to support people’s nutrition and healthcare needs.

The managers and staff had a good understanding of people’s individual needs and preferences. People’s care and support needs were kept under review and staff responded when there were changes in these needs. People were encouraged to raise concerns and were confident these would be responded to.

There was an experienced management team that worked well together. Managers and staff shared the same values and were committed to providing a quality service to people. Staff received good support from the management team who they said were always available to give advice. There were effective and responsive processes for assessing and monitoring the quality of the service.

We undertook an announced visit to Cottage Farm Lodge on 24 and 25 February 2016. We told the provider before our visit that we would be coming. This was so people could give consent for us to visit them in their flats to talk with them.

Cottage Farm Lodge provides housing with care. People live in their own home and receive personal care and support from staff at pre-arranged times and in emergencies. At the time of our visit 16 people at Cottage Farm Lodge received personal care.

The service had a 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.

Staff had a good understanding of what constituted abuse and knew what actions to take to keep people safe. There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety. These included procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care, for checking staff were suitable to work with people who used the service and for managing people’s medicines safely.

The managers understood their responsibilities in relation to the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). Staff respected people’s decisions and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care.

There were enough staff to deliver the care and support people required. Staff received an induction when they started working for the service and completed training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively. People received care from a regular team of staff who stayed long enough to complete the care people required. People told us staff were caring and had the right skills to provide the care and support they required.

Care plans were personalised and contained relevant information for staff to help them provide the care people required. People knew how to complain and information about making a complaint was available for people. Staff said they could raise any concerns or issues with the managers, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.

There were processes to monitor the quality of the service provided and understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through regular communication with people and staff, returned surveys, observations of staff practice and a programme of other checks and audits.

Cottage Farm Lodge provides housing with care. People live in their own flats and staff provide support at pre- arranged times. There were 29 people using the service on the day of our visit. During our visit we spoke with four people who used the service, the manager, the assistant manager, three members of staff and an advocate.

People told us they were fully involved in their care and support. We were told people’s preferences and choices had been discussed with them and staff provided support in the way they liked.

People we spoke with said their care workers were respectful and caring. One person told us, “The staff are all very respectful I have no concerns whatsoever.”

We saw people’s care needs had been assessed and were regularly reviewed to make sure people received the care they required. Risks associated with people’s care had been identified and were managed appropriately by the service. The care plans we looked at provided staff with sufficient information about the care and support people required to meet their needs and maintain their safety.

We looked at how medication was managed by the service. There were processes in place to audit medication records and we were satisfied people received their medication as prescribed.

People said there was a small staff team that provided their care. People told us their care was provided around the same time each day. We looked at how calls to people were allocated to care workers. We found on the day of our visit there were sufficient care workers to provide the care and support people required.

Records showed the agency had systems in place to monitor the care provided. Everyone we spoke with told us they were satisfied with the care they received. One person said, “They have to do most things for me now. They look after me well.”

We visited Cottage Farm Lodge on Wednesday 30 January. No one knew we were visiting. People who used the service received varying levels of care and support. Some people received support with personal care while others only required a well being check.

We spoke with three people who used the service. They told us they were satisfied with the service provided by Cottage Farm Lodge. Comments we received included “All the staff are pleasant and helpful", “They know what I need help with; they are very kind and always ask if I am ok”.

We looked at how people’s care was being managed. We found care records provided staff with the information they required to meet people’s needs. There was also a procedure to make sure care was delivered safely. We saw that staff recorded the things they had done and signed the times they arrived and left people’s homes.

Staff we spoke with knew how to recognise symptoms of abuse and what to do to keep people safe. We found staff supported people to maintain independence and make their own decisions.

There were processes in place to safely recruit staff and provide staff with the training and support to meet the care needs of people.

We looked at the way the service managed complaints. No formal complaints had been received since our last visit. People we spoke with knew how to make complaints and said they would complain if they needed to.

People who live at Cottage Farm Lodge have a care support plan completed that identifies their care support and what they need staff to help them with. Staff we spoke to knew the support needs of people we visited and had completed the training to make sure they know how to do things competently and safely. Not all the calls people required had been scheduled for visits and staff were not always recording all the calls they made to tenants so it was difficult to assess if peoples identified needs were being fully met.

People we spoke to said their support was provided by carers they knew well. One person said he keeps himself to himself, he said he didn’t know staff names but knew their faces he told us ‘staff are pretty friendly here’.

People told us that care staff treat them with respect and uphold their privacy. One person told us ‘‘staff are nice people, it couldn’t be better’.

People told us they can continue to do things for themselves if they are able and that staff are always around if you need them. Risk assessments are completed for people who require support to do things this is to make sure staff know how to do this safely. Not all the things people needed help with had risk assessments completed, for example prevention of pressure areas, and the actions identified to minimise risk were not always being recorded and this could put people at risk.

People we spoke to said staff treated them with respect and said they would talk to the senior staff is they were concerned about anything.

‘One member of staff said ‘I have a good rapport with the tenants I am sure they would tell me if they were unhappy about anything’

Care staff had completed safeguarding training and knew what to do if they had any suspicions or concerns. Staff said they would have no hesitation reporting poor practice to the senior staff and managers.

People who use the service told us they knew who to speak to if they were unhappy with anything. Tenants have regular meetings were they can express their views and opinions. Staff said they have handovers at every shift and regular team meetings to make sure they are kept up to date about tenants needs.

Staff told us that they enjoyed working at Cottage Farm lodge and that the manager and seniors were very supportive. Comments we received included.

‘We meet 3 monthly with all clients to complete a summary of their care. We ask them about their satisfaction of the service during summary meetings’

‘I love working here there is a really supportive atmosphere’.