About the service:

• Redlands House is a residential care home that was providing personal care to 26 people aged 65 and over at the time of this inspection. Some of those residing at Redlands House were living with dementia. It is registered to provide care and support for up to 33 older people. However, at the time of this inspection, the service was undergoing major refurbishment work and was not able to accommodate the number of people it is registered for.

People’s experiences of using this service:

• This was the service’s first inspection under a new registration.

• The major building work that is currently taking place had some impact on the people who used the service. The home, at times, was chaotic and was not yet wholly suitable for the people who used it. However, it is acknowledged that the provider had recognised that the environment needed improving to give those that lived at Redlands House a better quality of life.

• The quality monitoring system the provider had in place covered all aspects of the service however it had not been fully effective at identifying and rectifying the issues found at this inspection. This included confusion over who had legal responsibilities to make decisions on a person’s care and lack of up to date information in some care plans in regard to nutritional needs. However, staff knew people’s needs well and this mitigated the risk to some extent. Medicines management requires improvement.

• Some events that are required by law to be reported to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had not been. However, appropriate actions had been taken by the service to safeguard people.

• A fire door was found to be open which gave easy access to a main road and major building works. The provider took immediate action to make it safe.

• People received a responsive and caring service.

• The individual risks to people had mostly been identified and managed.

• Risks from the building work, environment and working processes had been mitigated.

• The service had processes in place to help protect people from the risk of abuse.

• Staff knew people well and we saw that they had built warm, kind and respectful relationships with those people that used the service and others.

• People were supported to have maximum control over their lives, remain independent and dignity was maintained. We saw that staff supported people in a respectful and gracious manner.

• People’s care was assessed, reviewed and personalised and staff knew people’s needs, preferences and likes well.

• There were enough staff to meet people’s needs when the service ran smoothly. People felt more staff were needed in the event of emergencies or incidents.

• Staff had received an induction, training and ongoing support and demonstrated knowledge. People told us they had confidence in the staff.

• People told us they would recommend the home. One relative we spoke with said, “I wouldn’t want [family member] to be anywhere else. We know [family member] is well looked after which means we don’t worry. I would happily recommend coming here.”

• For more information on our inspection findings, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Rating at last inspection:

• This was the service’s first inspection under its new registration. The regulated activity of ‘accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care’ was registered with the CQC on 19 December 2017.

Why we inspected:

• This was a planned comprehensive inspection based on the service’s new registration.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor the service to ensure people receive safe, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates taking into consideration the overall rating for the service.