About the service: Finch Manor is a care home providing personal care for up to 89 older people. The home is purpose built and the accommodation is in five units over one floor. One of the units within the home is designed to support people living with dementia and one unit is designed to support people with nursing needs. At the time of the inspection there were 69 people living at the home.

People’s experience of using this service: People living in the home told us they felt safe. Most people felt there were enough staff to meet their needs. However, two people and some relatives told us there was not always enough staff and during these times response to call bells was slow. During the inspection we observed staffing levels to be adequate, with staff able to support people in a timely way.

People were not always receiving their medicines safely. Staff were not following the service medication policy when administering medicines. Staff had not been appropriately checked for competence with administering medication.

The service was not compliant with the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and the associated Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). People had not always had an appropriate assessment when they were deemed to lack capacity for a specific decision. People were being restricted without the lawful process being followed.

Care plans were inconsistent and lacked detail.

The service failed to ensure staff were suitably trained and supervised in their roles.

Risk assessments were not fully completed or adequate for the management of people’s risks. Environments risks were also not well managed. We found medicine rooms, maintenance rooms and other areas that posed a danger to people, unsecured. We also found concerns with hot water temperatures. These issues were addressed during the inspection.

People told us they had enough to eat and drink. We saw snacks being offered throughout the day. However, we raised concerns with the lack of drinks offered throughout the day. We also raised concerns with the lack of monitoring for people's fluids. Although fluid consumption was recorded in people's notes, there was no oversight of this to ensure people were having adequate fluids. The provider has since put new governance systems in place to address this.

Safe recruitment practices were in place for staff. People were complimentary about the staff that supported them. We observed caring, familiar interactions between staff and people living in the home.

Standards of cleanliness were poor in some parts of the home. Some communal areas appeared dusty and dirty. The home was in need of a refurbishment as it was ‘tired’ looking in parts..

The service did not have robust and effective systems in place to monitor, assess and improve the safety and quality of service being provided. Management oversight of the service was inadequate.

You can see more information in the Detailed Findings below.

Follow up: Following the inspection, we asked the provider to detail how they planned to deliver the required improvements. We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme.

Rating at last inspection: This is the first inspection for this provider.

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection.

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