We carried out this inspection on 3 and 4 May 3017 and the first day of the inspection was unannounced. This was the first inspection of this service.

Cambian Lowry House is a purpose built facility and consisted of self-contained apartments providing accommodation for 12 people. The apartments provided single occupancy, or two or three bed facilities. The home had spacious communal areas, activity rooms, a physical fitness suite and an enclosed garden. The home is registered to provide residential care and accommodation and at the time of this inspection there were a total of nine people using the service.

At the time of our inspection a registered manager was 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People living in the home told us they were happy with their care and liked the staff that supported them and felt safe when care and support was being delivered.

Staff knew how to act to keep people safe and free from harm. The registered manager and senior staff ensured that the building and equipment were well maintained and that the environment had been designed to keep people as safe as possible.

There were enough staff to meet the needs of people using the service. Some of those needs were complex and staff told us they were trained and received appropriate support and supervision to effectively meet people’s complex needs. Staff received a full and detailed induction before they started working with people. Induction training was taking place with seven newly employed staff at the time of our inspection.

The arrangements for managing medication were well managed by staff that supported those people who needed help to take their medicines safely.

Our observation of staff interacting with people gave a clear indication that they knew the most appropriate and best ways of communicating with people effectively and knew how best to support them. Staff were aware of people’s individual choices and how to support those people who lacked capacity to make decisions for themselves.

Care plans were detailed and provided staff with clear advice on how best to support people to maintain their daily and night time routines, including how staff should respond to people’s changing behaviours.

People were supported to maintain a suitable food and fluid intake. Staff supported people with their individual shopping requirements and helped them to maintain an appropriate healthy diet that was flexible according to people’s preferences and choices on a day-to-day basis.

People were supported to raise any concerns and complaints and we saw evidence of this. One complaint raised by a person had been supported to do so by the member of staff designated as their support worker. We saw full written details of the complaint made, the registered managers’ timely initial response, and a timely response to the findings and outcome, all to the satisfaction of the complainant.

We found that the registered manager led by example, supporting staff when dealing with new, complex needs of people and providing opportunities for staff, people using the service and their families to participate in meetings to look for ways of further improving the service.

The management team carried out monthly checks and audits on how the service was being provided and if any areas of service provision could be further improved. The audit processes included, care delivery and support, maintenance of the environment and medicines management. Where any shortfalls had been identified, these had been quickly addressed with information included to detail any lessons learned. We saw evidence of the audits completed by the management team.