This inspection took place on 17 May 2018 and was unannounced.

Whittle Hall is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Whittle Hall accommodates 74 people across three separate units, each of which had separate adapted facilities. One of the units specialises in providing care to people living with dementia. The other two units specialise in supporting people with nursing needs and dementia.

At the time of our inspection there were 43 people living in the home.

Whittle Hall is owned and run by London and Manchester (L&M) Healthcare, specialist providers of luxury care residences with particular emphasis on general nursing and dementia nursing care.

A registered manager was 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.

Staff were aware of the reporting protocol to keep people safe from abuse or potential harm. Staff could clearly describe in what instances they would raise concerns and knew what the characteristics of abuse were.

There had been a number safeguarding concerns raised with the local authority and incidents with relation to falls. We checked the procedure for falls management, including recording and reporting the fall appropriately, analysing records for patterns, trends, or any re-occurrence that would warrant further investigation and referrals. We saw the service was doing this, and in some cases, additional investigations into incidents were being conducted.

There were no open safeguarding investigations at the time of inspection. We discussed how improvements had been made from historical safeguarding concerns including the opportunities for lessons learned.

Staff were recruited and selected to work at the home following a robust recruitment procedure. The registered manager retained comprehensive records of each staff member, and had undertaken checks on their character and suitability to work at the home.

Risk assessments were in place and were reviewed every month or when there was a change in people's needs. We saw risk assessments in place to manage people's mobility needs, falls, pressure areas, personal care, mental health and behaviour. Risk assessments were linked to an accompanying plan of care which was informative and fully described how staff were required to support the person.

We saw that rotas were fully staffed; There were some agency nurses being used, however, most of the agency staff were used regularly. This meant that they were familiar with the home. The registered manager had a process in place to recruit new staff and we saw that some new staff were due to start working at the home.

Medication was managed, administered and stored securely by registered nurses or senior advanced practitioners on each unit. Each person had a medication file in place which contained information about them and their preferences for taking medication.

There were domestic staff around the home ensuring that rooms and bathrooms were kept clean. There was hand gel available around the home and personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff to use to prevent the spread of infection.

People's needs and choices were assessed prior to them being admitted to the home.

The training matrix showed that staff were trained in all subjects which were mandatory to their role, and as stated in the registered provider's training policy. We saw that additional training was sourced into the home by an external provider which was specialist around communication and supporting people