St Elmo Care Home

St Elmo Care Home is an adapted building with accommodation over 2 floors. A passenger lift provides access to the upper floor and there are communal areas where people gather for meals and activities.

The provider was not fully aware of their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.

People's needs had been assessed and care plans devised to meet needs. Meals were appetising and people had been referred to Speech and Language Therapy for assessment should they have swallowing difficulties. The lunchtime experience for people could be improved. The provider sought referrals to health and social care professionals as needed. The provider was undertaking a full refurbishment of the premises and was decorating all rooms and communal areas.

Staff were caring towards people and knew them well, but we had some concerns relating to how people's privacy and dignity was respected.

Care plans were person centred and the provider had met the Accessible Information Standard. The provider had been unable to recruit an activities staff member and while there were sufficient hours of care staff to cover this role, staff were reluctant to do so. This was a missed opportunity to engage people and provide them with fulfilling lives. There was no one receiving end of life care when we inspected however the registered manager was proud of their practice in this area.

We found a number of events had not been notified to CQC including an injury and a safeguarding concern. Audits had not picked this up and did not analyse information well, we were not assured the registered manager had full oversight of the service. Issues in the staff team were impacting on well-being and could potentially affect service delivery. The registered manager was struggling to address these concerns. The

provider sought feedback from relatives on a regular basis and the registered manager was available should anyone need to speak with them. Working relationships were maintained with relevant health and social care professionals.