About the service: Ivydene is a residential care home for up to 17 people that provides personal care to up to people 17 living with mental health conditions. There were 17 people living in the service at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

• We identified two breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

• Risks had not all been identified and mitigated, and medicines were not always managed safely.

• The registered manager did not always have a clear oversight of the service, and there was a lack of formal quality assurance systems in place.

• Staff were kind and caring and supported people to be as independent as possible. Staff asked for consent before delivering care.

• People had access to healthcare professionals when required, and staff followed recommendations when needed.

• Staff knew how to care for people and received training in their roles, and support from the management team.

• Staff supported people to have a range of healthy balanced meals and enough to drink.

• The staff worked well as a team and communicated well.

• We found the service continued to meet the characteristics of a “Good” rating in effective, caring and responsive. There were some shortfalls leading to a “Requires Improvement” rating in safe and well-led. This meant the overall rating was “Requires Improvement.”

More information is available in the full report.

Rating at last inspection: Good (Published 12 May 2016)

Why we inspected: We inspected this service in line with our inspection schedule for services currently rated Good.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor this service according to our inspection schedule for services rated Requires Improvement.

Say when the inspection took place and whether the inspection was announced or unannounced. Where relevant, describe any breaches of legal requirements at your last inspection, and if so whether improvements have been made to meet the relevant requirement(s).

Provide a brief overview of the service (e.g. Type of care provided, size, facilities, number of people using it, whether there is or should be a registered manager etc).

N.B. If there is or should be a registered manager include this statement to describe what a registered manager is:

‘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.’

Give a summary of your findings for the service, highlighting what the service does well and drawing attention to areas where improvements could be made. Where a breach of regulation has been identified, summarise, in plain English, how the provider was not meeting the requirements of the law and state ‘You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.’ Please note that the summary section will be used to populate the CQC website. Providers will be asked to share this section with the people who use their service and the staff that work at there.

We spoke with five people living in Ivydene. One person told us, “It’s a wonderful home, I love it.” Another person told us enthusiastically, “It’s fine, we all get on here.” We also spoke with a visiting psychiatric nurse who told us they had no concerns about the support and care people received at the home.

We asked people whether they agreed with the support and care they received. One person said, “Oh yes. They always check I’m right with it.” People had signed several documents in their care records. We spoke with them and were satisfied that people understood what they had consented to in writing.

The people we spoke with living at Ivydene all told us they felt safe living there and felt safe with the staff. They told us that if they had any concerns they would speak with staff or the proprietor.

There were effective recruitment and selection processes in place. Appropriate steps had been taken to ensure that prospective employees had been vetted and were suitable for their role. References had been taken up for all three staff members whose files we reviewed.

Records, including people’s medical records, were kept securely which ensured that people’s confidentiality was maintained.

Everyone we spoke with told us, with evident pleasure and pride, about annual holidays, the Christmas meals, coach trips, fund raising, church activities, afternoon teas and barbecues. One person stated: "This is a real home of independence!"

One person told us: "We're exactly like a happy family, we have fun and can have a laugh." Another said: "We all look after each other and we all do various chores around the house." Someone else showed us a copy of the daily tasks list that showed what each person was responsible for carrying out and said: "We all work well together as a team."

People spoken with told us that they were happy with the support they received and felt their needs were being met. Everybody said the staff were very good, kind and caring.

They confirmed that there were always enough staff around when they needed them. One person said: "All the staff are absolutely brilliant." Another person told us how the staff helped them with their personal shopping whenever they needed anything.

People also told us that they knew how to make a complaint or raise any concerns and they believed these would be listened to and taken seriously by staff. Someone told us that: "We can talk freely all the time. There's a file in the office where we can report any issues and copies of minutes are available from the residents' meetings we have."

People we spoke with told us they were well supported and that staff were kind and considerate. One person said that the home was, “Brilliant” and that they would recommend it as a place to live. They went on to say they felt, “Free” and, “Independent” and that the staff were lovely.

People told us they could control their own medication if they wished to and were able. One person kept all their own medicines, whilst another kept only some, preferring staff to look after their tablets. They also spoke about having their own money to spend as they wished.

We were told that people could do chores about the house if they wished and that staff supported them if necessary. One person said they were happy to do the chores and that they did not do them if they didn’t want to. People we spoke with said they could have visitors whenever they wished and they could go out when they wanted to.