This inspection took place on 23 and 24 May 2017 and was an unannounced comprehensive rating inspection. At the last inspection on 21 January 2015, the service was rated ‘Good’ overall, with a rating of ‘Requires improvement’ in the key question of ‘is the service ‘Well-Led’. At this inspection we found the provider had made improvements and were now rated as ‘Good’ in all key questions.

The Ridings Care Home is an 83 bed care/nursing home supporting people with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 81 people living at the home. The building is divided into six separate households. The six households are situated on three floors and divided into areas to support people with different dementia related care and support needs. This included; one dementia care unit for older people, two dementia care units for people of a working age and three nursing units.

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 kept safe and secure, and relatives believed their family members were safe from risk of harm. Potential risks to people had been assessed and managed appropriately by the provider.

People received their medicines safely and as prescribed and were supported by sufficient numbers of staff to ensure that risk of harm was minimised.

Staff had been recruited appropriately and had received relevant training so that they were able to support people with their individual care and support needs.

Staff sought people’s consent before providing care and support. Staff understood when the legal requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) should be followed.

People’s rights to privacy and confidentiality were respected by the staff that supported them and their dignity was maintained.

People had a variety of food, drinks and snacks available throughout the day. They were able to choose the meals that they preferred to eat.

People were supported to stay healthy and had access to health care professionals as required. They were treated with kindness and compassion and there were positive interactions between staff and the people living at the location.

People’s choices and independence were respected and promoted. Staff responded appropriately to people’s support needs. People received care from staff that knew them well and benefitted from opportunities to take part in activities that they enjoyed.

Relatives and staff were confident about approaching the manager if they needed to. They provider had effective auditing systems in place to monitor the effectiveness and quality of service provision. People and relatives views on the quality of the service were gathered and used to support service development.

We visited this home because we had received comments which alleged that staff were not providing good care at this home. An anonymous caller made allegations about the standard of care, saying that people were not always safe at this home. Another person told us that people did not receive appropriate support at mealtimes. A social worker told us about an incident. We sent the allegations to the safeguarding authority for investigation. Some of these investigations were still in progress at the time of our visit. Some had been closed as the evidence did not support the allegations.

Many of the people who lived in this home had complex needs and were not able to speak with us in detail about their experiences. In order to find out about people’s experience of this home we spent time observing how staff cared for people. We observed people in two areas, one for people of working age (Champion Crescent) and one for older people, many of whom experienced memory loss (Ascot).

People who communicated with us expressed satisfaction with the home and the staff. One person told us, ‘They look after us well …the food us usually good’. One said of a member of staff, ‘I love that lady, she’s absolutely perfect’.

We spoke with six relatives of people in the home. They told us that they were pleased with the standard of care. One said, ‘It is a lovely place….they look after him well and we have no worries’. Two visitors told us, “I have booked my place here”.

We spoke with three social workers who had visited the home recently, in response to the allegations of poor care. One told us that they had not found evidence to support the allegations they were investigating. One told us that although they had some concerns on their first visit, they had brought these to the attention of the manager, who had made improvements before their second visit. The other social worker was still investigating.

People living at the home had their care and welfare needs met by a competent staff team. Individual’s specific needs were assessed and a plan of care to meet those needs was developed and discussed with the individual and their family.

People were kept safe and the risk of harm occurring was minimised by ongoing staff training and updated risk assessments. Staffing levels met people's needs enabling them to retain their independence and gain assistance when needed.

The staff team worked well together to provide a good standard of care to the people living at the home. All staff received ongoing training and supervision that enabled them to meet the specific care needs of the individual’s at the home.

The home was managed by an experienced management team who undertook regular audits to ensure that the standard of service provided remained consistently high.

The inspection took place on 21 and 22 January 2015 and was unannounced.

We last inspected The Ridings in February 2014. At that inspection we found the provider was not meeting all the regulations in relation to the care and welfare of people who use services. Following our February 2014 inspection the provider sent us an action plan telling us about the improvements they were going to make. During this inspection we found that these improvements had been made.

The Ridings is an 83 bed nursing home supporting people with dementia including working age dementia. The building is divided into six separate units referred to as ‘households’.

The Ridings is required to have a registered manager. 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 the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. A registered manager was in post

People who could tell us told that they felt safe living at the home. Relatives that we spoke with told us that their family member was safe and well cared for at The Ridings. Staff understood their responsibility to take action to protect people from the risk of abuse and harm because the provider had systems in place to minimise the risk of abuse.

The manager understood the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and had taken action and where needed. Staff spoken with had an understanding of the MCA and DoLS and had received training so they knew how to protect people’s rights in line with this legislation.

During our inspection we saw many positive interactions between staff and people that lived at the home.

Staff knew about people’s needs. Staff received the appropriate training to enable them to deliver care safely and effectively.

People, relatives and staff told us that there were enough staff to care for people and keep them safe. However, we saw that the staffing arrangements at mealtime on one household meant that some people waited to get the staff support they needed.

People received their medication as prescribed and medication was stored safely.

People were supported to take part in individual hobbies and interests.

Arrangements were in place so that the manager responded to people’s complaints and took action to improve the service.

There were some systems in place to assess, monitor and develop the quality of the service. This included seeking the views of people and their relatives. Some improvements were needed to medication administration systems and the arrangements in place to ensure all people received timely support at meal times.