Greengates Care Home provides nursing care and support for up to 15 people. People who live at the home have enduring mental health needs. This was an unannounced inspection, which meant the staff and provider did not know we would be visiting.

There was a registered manager in post. 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 were receiving care that was responsive and effective. Care plans were in place that described how the person would like to be supported. This included the early warning signs that a person’s mental health was changing. The care plans provided staff with information to support the person effectively. The staff had trialed an electronic care system, whilst they acknowledged there were some positive aspects to the system it lent itself to supporting older people rather than people with enduing mental health needs. In response, they were going to return to a recovery model of care planning where the focus was on well-being and what the person could do. Other health and social professionals were involved in the care of the people living at Greengates. Safe systems were in place to ensure that people received their medicines as prescribed.

People were protected from the risk of abuse because there were clear procedures in place to recognise and respond to abuse and staff had been trained in how to follow the procedures. Systems were in place to ensure people were safe including risk management, checks on the environment and safe recruitment processes.

Staff were extremely caring and supportive and demonstrated a good understanding of their roles in supporting people. There was a real commitment to ensure staff had the appropriate

training to support people effectively. Staff were supported in their roles. Systems were in place to ensure open communication including team meetings and daily handovers. A handover is where important information is shared between the staff during shift changeovers. This ensured important information was shared between staff enabling them to provide care that was effective and consistent.

People were involved in structured activities in the home and the local community. These were organised taking into consideration the interests of the people and were organised in small groups or an individual basis. Some people were encouraged to be creative and were involved in an exhibition of their work.

People’s views were sought through care reviews, house meetings and surveys and acted upon. Systems were in place to ensure that complaints were responded to, and learning from these was taken to improve the service provided. People were very much involved in the running of Greengates including the recruitment of staff.

People were provided with a safe, effective, caring and responsive service that was well led. The organisation’s values and philosophy were clearly explained to staff and there was a positive culture where people felt included and their views were sought.

Greengates Care Home provides nursing care and support for up to 15 people. People who live at the home have enduring mental health needs. This was an unannounced inspection, which meant the staff and provider did not know we would be visiting.

There was a registered manager in post. 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 were receiving care that was responsive and effective. Care plans were in place that described how the person would like to be supported. This included the early warning signs that a person’s mental health was changing. The care plans provided staff with information to support the person effectively. Other health and social professionals were involved in the care of the people living at Greengates. Safe systems were in place to ensure that people received their medicines as prescribed.

People were protected from the risk of abuse because there were clear procedures in place to recognise and respond to abuse and staff had been trained in how to follow the procedures. Systems were in place to ensure people were safe including risk management, checks on the environment and safe recruitment processes.

Staff were caring and supportive and demonstrated a good understanding of their roles in supporting people. Staff received training and support that was relevant to their roles. Systems were in place to ensure open communication including team meetings and daily handovers.  A handover is where important information is shared between the staff during shift changeovers. This ensured important information was shared between staff enabling them to provide care that was effective and consistent.

People were involved in structured activities in the home and the local community. These were organised taking into consideration the interests of the people and were organised in small groups or an individual basis.

People’s views were sought through care reviews, house meetings and surveys and acted upon. Systems were in place to ensure that complaints were responded to, and learning from these was taken to improve the service provided.

People were provided with a safe, effective, caring and responsive service that was well led. The organisation’s values and philosophy were clearly explained to staff and there was a positive culture where people felt included and their views were sought.

People were positive about their experiences of living at the home. They told us that staff were pleasant, caring and compassionate. Staff understood that everybody living there had capacity and respected the decisions they made. We saw that staff were warm and friendly with people and there was a relaxed atmosphere.

People's care needs were assessed and where they may be at risk, there were suitable risk management plans. We saw that there were clear plans to support people should their mental health begin to deteriorate. We saw that people were well-supported with any physical health problems.

Medicines were managed safely and annual staff competency checks were carried out.

There were suitable arrangements in place to ensure appropriate checks were carried out on new members of staff. Staff received training which was specific to the needs of people living at the home as well as mandatory training.

The provider operated an effective system to manage the quality of the service.

We spoke with ten people who used the service to find out their views of Greengates and the staff who assisted them with needs.

Everyone we spoke with had positive opinions of the care and support they were receiving at the home. One person told us, “it is wonderful here it's magic”. We were also told, “there is a much better atmosphere at this home then my last place ”, and "it's just magic here".

Care plans and assessment records were informative and they showed how to support people effectively with their mental health needs. This meant staff knew how to give people the assistance they required.

People who used the service were effectively supported to live a varied and fulfilling life at Greengates and in the community.

People who used the service were supported by a sufficient number of qualified and suitable staff to meet their needs.

There were suitable systems in place to assist people to make complaints about the service. When complaints were made about the service these were taken seriously and were properly investigated by the provider.

We asked five people to tell us about their experiences of living at the home and four people agreed to speak with us.

We asked people about the choices they made and one person told us that staff helped them make decisions. Another person said they could say “no” if they did not want to participate in activities.

When we asked people about the staff, we were told that the staff were good and they knew how to care for them. People said they felt respected by the staff. They told us staff knocked on their bedroom doors before entering, meal choices were recently introduced and their personal care was dignified.

We asked people if they had a say about the way their care was delivered and one person told us they had a care plan in place. Another said the staff knew the way they needed to be cared for. A third person said they attended Care Programme Approach (CPA) meetings.

People told us about the activities they did during the day. One person said they cleaned their bedrooms, belonged to a choir they went to practices and maintained contact with family and friends. Another person said they liked to sit in the lounge and watch TV. A third person said they were not happy because the textile group had been cancelled that day.

People we asked about feeling safe said “yes” they felt safe and gave us the name of the member of staff that they would approach with complaints or concerns.