Archived: Millcroft

This inspection took place on 16 February 2015 and was unannounced.

Millcroft is an eight bed facility for people with learning and physical disabilities. Accommodation is arranged over two floors with an adjacent annex housing the day activities room and offices. On the day of our inspection there were six people who lived at the home.

All of the people who lived at Millcroft had complex needs and were not able to verbally communicate their views and experiences to us. We conducted a Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI) during the lunch in the dining area/ lounge. SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experiences of people who could not easily communicate with us during our visit. It also helped us evaluate the quality of interactions that took place between people living in the home and the staff who supported them.

The manager had been in post since November 2014 and had applied to be registered with the commission. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At our last inspection in May 2014 we found the service failed to meet the regulations in three areas: infection control, quality assurance and records. On this visit we found that the manager had made suitable arrangements for the safe storage, management and disposal of medicines, the control of infection and to monitor the performance of the home.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) is required to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and to report on what we find. DoLS are put in place to protect people where they do not have capacity to make decisions and where it is considered necessary to restrict their freedom in some way, usually to protect themselves or others. At the time of the inspection applications had been made to the local authority in relation to people who lived at the service and were pending an outcome. The manager and staff were familiar with their role in relation to MCA and DoLS.

The new manager had put plans in place to address the areas we identified as needing developing to enhance the experience of people living at Millcroft. For example whilst people benefitted from the home having had some refurbishment, improving the internal appearance and making it brighter. They had not been involved in any aspect of the refurbishment. However, the manager planned to involve people with all future changes.

We observed that staff treated people with respect and maintained their privacy and dignity. However the level of staffing had been affected by two vacancies and sickness levels. This impacted on people in the lack of meaningful activities. It also had an impact on developing people’s communication and their care and support to be more creative and accessible. The manager was actively recruiting experienced staff and reviewing staff sickness levels so people could develop social and personal goals.

We have made a recommendation that the provider reviews their staffing arrangements to reflect current guidance on workforce planning.