This inspection took place on 29 November 2018 and was unannounced.

Woodlands Lodge is a residential ‘care home’ which provides accommodation and personal care for up to 40 older people, including people living with dementia. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. Care is provided over two floors and each bedroom provided en-suite facilities. At the time of the inspection 27 people were living at Woodlands Lodge Care Home.

At the time of the inspection 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. During the inspection we found the registered manager to be open, transparent and receptive to the feedback provided.

This was the first inspection since the registered provider had registered with CQC in December 2017.

During this inspection, we reviewed the different quality assurance processes the registered provider had in place. Quality assurance processes helped to maintain the quality and safety of care people received however, they did not always identify improvements that were required in relation to people's care records.

We recommend that the registered provider reviews quality assurance processes to ensure care records contain the relevant amount of information required.

Staff were familiar with the support needs of the people they were caring for; although care records did not always contain a sufficient amount of person-centred information.

Medication management processes were safely in place. People received their medication by staff who were appropriately trained, regular audits were taking place and there was an up to date medication policy in place.

Recruitment was safely managed. People who were employed had undergone the necessary recruitment checks. Pre-employment and Disclosure and Barring System checks (DBS) were carried out and appropriate references were obtained for each candidate before they started working at the service.

Staffing levels were safely managed and people received safe and responsive care by staff who were familiar with their care needs.

Risk assessments were in place for people who lived at Woodlands Lodge. People’s level of risk was assessed and established from the outset, support measures were in place to mitigate risks and assessments were regularly reviewed and updated.

Staff told us that they received up to date information in relation to people’s health and well-being needs on a daily basis.

People were protected from harm and abuse. Staff were familiar with safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures, they told us how they would raise their concerns and the importance of complying with safeguarding and whistleblowing policies and procedures as a measure of keeping people safe.

There was an accident and incident reporting policy in place. Accidents and incidents were routinely recorded, they were appropriately managed and the registered manager established trends to identify if risks needed to be further mitigated.

The home was clean, hygienic and odour free. All areas of the home were well maintained and people lived in a safe, calm and homely environment.

Infection prevention control measures were in place and staff had access to personnel protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, aprons and sanitizing gels.

Weekly, monthly and annual health and safety audits and checks were completed to help monitor and assess the quality and safety of the home. Regulatory compliance checks were also completed; compliance certific