Rayleigh House is an established care home situated on the outskirts of the coastal resort of Skegness in Lincolnshire and is owned by SBL Care Ltd. The home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 15 older people, some of whom may experience memory loss associated with conditions such as dementia.

We inspected Rayleigh House on 22 February 2017. The inspection was unannounced. On the day of our inspection 13 people were living at the home and one of the people was temporarily receiving care in hospital.

This was our first inspection of the home since the provider changed their registration status to a limited company on 7 September 2016.

The provider had an established registered manager in place. 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 supported by staff who knew how to recognise abuse and how to respond to concerns. Risks in relation to people’s daily life were assessed and planned for to protect them from harm.

People were supported by enough staff to ensure they received care and support at the times they needed it. Medicines were managed safely and people received their medicines as prescribed.

People were supported by staff who had the knowledge and skills to provide safe and appropriate care and support.

People’s rights were respected and they were supported to make decisions and choices for themselves wherever possible. Staff understood how to support people to make decisions and choices in line with legal guidance. CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and to report on what we find. DoLS are in place to protect people where they do not have capacity to make decisions and where it is considered necessary to restrict their freedom in some way, usually to protect themselves. At the time of the inspection two people were subject to a DoLS authorisation and we saw that the conditions of the authorisations were being met.

People were supported to maintain their nutrition and staff were monitoring and responding to people’s health conditions.

People’s emotional needs were recognised and responded to by a staff team who cared about the individuals they were supporting. People were able to enjoy a social life and they lived in a home where staff listened to them.

People were involved in giving their views on how the service was run and there were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided.