Kelvedon House

Kelvedon House is registered to provide accommodation for 52 people who require nursing or personal care. People who live there may have a dementia type illness or a learning disability. At the time of our inspection 49 people were living at the home. The service is delivered across three units; Park View and Jobs Way which are predominantly occupied by people who are living with dementia and the third unit which supports people who have a learning disability.

A registered manager was in place. A 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 cared for by staff who were trained in recognising and understanding how to report potential abuse. Staff knew how to raise any concerns about people's safety and shared information so that people's safety needs were met.

People were supported by staff to have their medicines and records were maintained of medicines administered. People and relatives complimented the cleanliness of the home and staff used protective clothing when appropriate.

Staff were available to meet people's individual needs and demonstrated good knowledge about people living at the home. Staff told us training helped them meet the specific needs of the people they supported.

Staff understood the importance of ensuring people agreed to the care and support they provided and when to involve others to help people make important decisions. The registered manager was aware of their responsibilities in regard to the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and had submitted the appropriate applications where they had assessed that people were potentially receiving care that restricted their liberty.

People enjoyed a choice of meals and snacks and were supported to access professional healthcare outside of the home, for example, they had regular visits with their GP and any changes to their care needs were recorded and implemented.

People were supported to enjoy a wide range of activities and were involved in their day to day care and chose how to spend their day. We saw further developments including on site reminiscence shops were planned to support people living with dementia. People were encouraged to maintain their independence.

Staff were caring and treated people with respect. We saw people were relaxed around the staff supporting them and we heard and saw positive communication throughout our inspection and saw people smiling and responding positively to staff. Staff showed us that they knew the interests, likes and dislikes of people. We saw that staff ensured that they were respectful of people's choices and decisions.

People knew how to raise concerns and felt confident they could raise any issues should the need arise and that action would be taken as a result.

The provider had systems in place to check and improve the quality of the service provided. We saw that where areas had been identified as requiring improvement actions had been taken in response.

The registered manager was available to people, relatives and staff and supported staff to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively, so that people received care and support in-line with their needs and wishes.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found