About the service: Elmwood House Care Home provides residential or nursing care for up to 48 older people. At the time of the inspection there were 32 people living at the service, some of whom were living with a dementia.

People’s experience of using this service: People told us they felt safe and that staff supported them well. There were enough staff deployed to meet the needs of people.

Medicines were not always managed safely; there were gaps in the records for medicine administration.

People enjoyed the meals and their dietary needs had been catered for. Information was recorded in care plans and shared with kitchen staff.

Activities were available to people. The well-being coordinator was working to further develop the opportunities for people to engage in activities that were meaningful and relevant to them.

The home was in the process of refurbishment work to improve the living environment. People were involved in decisions about the redecoration of the home.

Care plans and risk assessments contained person-centred information and were reviewed and updated for people. End of life care plans were not in place for all people. Some records we viewed were blank and did not evidence any discussions had taken place.

There were gaps in training the provider had deemed mandatory and not all staff had received a yearly appraisal.

The home did not have a manager registered with CQC. A manager had been recruited and was due to commence employment in March 2019.

A range of audits were completed to support the quality and running of the home. Audits had identified areas of development. However, in some cases the actions had not been completed to deliver improvements.

Rating at last inspection: This is the first inspection of this location since a change in the provider’s registration.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection to give a first rating for the service under their new registration.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.