Melbreck

Melbreck is a nursing home providing personal and nursing care to up to 26 people with learning disabilities and/or complex needs in one adapted building. At the time of our inspection there were 25 people living at the service.

We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence, and good access to community facilities.

At our last inspection in July 2019, we rated the service requires improvement in the safe and well-led key questions and overall. We rated other key questions good. At this inspection, we found improvements had been made.

We found some shortfalls in the management of medicines. However, the provider took immediate action and sent us an action plan to tell us what they had done. On the second day of the assessment, we found all the concerns we identified had been rectified. The provider took action to strengthen their monitoring systems to help ensure any further concerns would be identified promptly and action taken in a timely manner.

Although the staff received training in the Mental Capacity Act, some lacked knowledge of this and were unable to tell us about the principles of the Act and how it related to people who lived at the service. This had not impacted on the care people received, and the provider took appropriate action following our feedback.

Processes to help ensure that risks to people were assessed and mitigated were effective. Staffing levels were overall adequate to meet people’s needs and staff retention was good.

There were good systems to protect people from the risk of infection and cross contamination, and staff followed good practice. There were systems in place for the safe recruitment of staff. Overall, people were cared for by staff who were kind and caring and knew them well. The service was clean, fresh and well-maintained.

People were supported to undertake a range of activities of their choice and were involved in the planning of these. People and their relatives were involved in their pre-admission assessment, care planning and the management of individual risks. Staff received regular training and had their competencies checked. People’s end of life wishes had been considered and documented. Staff spoke favourably of the management team and felt listened to and consulted.