About the service: Oakworth Manor is a residential care home in Oakworth, Keighley. At the time of the inspection it was providing personal care to 14 people aged 65 and over.

People’s experience of using this service:

People and relatives praised the overall standard of care within the home. They said care was appropriate and met individual needs. People praised the food and the friendly nature of staff.

Some improvements were needed to the safety of the service. People received their medicines as prescribed, but some improvements were needed to medicine care planning and checks were not in place to assess the competency and skills of staff. Overall there were sufficient staff, although staffing levels did vary from day to day. We found some improvements were needed to recruitment practices to ensure safe practice was consistently followed.

People said they felt safe and we saw safeguarding procedures were followed to keep people safe. Risks to people’s health and safety were assessed and staff understood the people they were supporting.

People had a good choice of food and action was taken to ensure people maintained a healthy weight. The service liaised with health professionals to help meet people’s needs.

Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. However, the service needed to better evidence the involvement of people and their relatives in care planning and decision making.

People’s care needs were assessed and clear care plans were in place to help inform staff practice. Staff knew people well and their individual needs and requirements. Staff promoted people’s independence and ensured they had access to a wide range of activities.

There was a nice atmosphere within the home with staff and people getting on well. The registered manager was ‘hands on’ and assisted with care and support. They knew people and their individual needs well.

Systems to assess, monitor and improve the service were in place but needed to be made more robust. For example, systems should have been operated to ensure the staff training was kept up to date, recruitment procedures consistently safely followed, medicines management systems were aligned with best practice and all building checks were consistently completed.

Policies and procedures were in place. However, the service needed to seek and utilise best practice guidance (such as from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)) to inform policy and care practice in areas such as Diabetes, Dementia, and Medicines Management.

We identified one breach of regulation relating to Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act (2008) Regulated Activities 2014 Regulations.

Rating at last inspection: This was the first inspection of the service since the registered provider changed in April 2018.

Why we inspected: This was a routine planned inspection as the service had not been inspected before under the current provider.

Follow up: We have asked the provider to send us an action plan detailing how it will make the necessary improvements to the service. We check the required improvements have been made at the next inspection of the service.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk