This inspection of Parklands Lodge took place on 17 April 2018 and was unannounced.

Parklands Lodge is a purpose built ‘care home’ offering nursing and personal care for up to 70 People. The care home is located close to Southport town centre near Hesketh Park. Care is provided over four levels in different units depending on people’s level of individual need; Meadow Park, Bluebell unit, Daffodil Park and Tree Tops. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. At the time of the inspection there were 67 people living in the home.

This registered manager had recently submitted their notice and was no longer working at the service. 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 legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. Suitable arrangements were in place to ensure the effective management of the service in the interim period through the oversight of the deputy manager and compliance and support manager for the organisation.

At the last inspection on 30 March 2017, we found that the registered provider was in breach of Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment). Following the last inspection, we asked the registered provider to complete an action plan to tell us what they would do and by when to improve. We received an action plan dated 2 May 2017 that outlined what improvements the registered provider intended to make to improve the safety of the service. At this inspection, we found that registered provider remained in breach of Regulation 12 and we identified a further breach of Regulation 17 (Good Governance).

At the last inspection we identified concerns with the way medicines were managed at the service. This was because the recording of medicines was not always clear or consistent and the audit processes were insufficient to ensure anomalies were identified. At this inspection, we found that medicines were still not managed safely at the service and quality assurance procedures were not robust.

Records contained contradictory information regarding people who required thickened fluids. The guidance in respect of what consistency the person needed was unclear and staff spoken with gave conflicting information. Support plans in place regarding PRN (as needed) medication did not always include important information to guide staff on safe administration such as the recommended time intervals between administrations. Medication Administration Records were not always updated to document people’s current medication, such as homely remedies.

Audits in place to check the safety of medicines were not robust because they had not identified the issues we found during the inspection. In addition, when errors were identified through the internal audit system, there was no clear evidence of remedial action taken in response. This meant that processes in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service were not always effective.

We have made a recommendation about staffing. We received mixed feedback from people, their relatives and staff themselves about the staffing levels within the service. Some people told us they had to wait for support and staff reported, and were observed, to be stretched.

We have made a recommendation about staff training and supervision. Staff received training to assist them to be effective in their role and an annual appraisal. Staff we spoke with felt relatively well supported and thought they had the skills and knowledge to complete the jobs effectively. However, we identified gaps in the training and supervision schedule at the service, a recurrent theme from our last insp

Parklands Lodge is a purpose built care home offering nursing and personal care for up to 70 People. It is located close to Southport town centre near Hesketh Park. There were 54 people living at the home at the time of the inspection.

This was an unannounced inspection which took place on 30-31 March 2017. This was the first inspection of the service since Parklands Lodge was registered in April 2016.

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

We found some anomalies with the way some medicines were being recorded and monitored. This meant there was a risk these medicines were not being administered consistently. We found the checking and auditing systems of medicines needed improving to ensure all anomalies were being identified.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.

The registered manager and senior managers for the provider were able to evidence a range of quality assurance processes and audits carried out at the home. We found some supporting management systems continued to be developed and key areas such as medicines management and overarching health and safety audits needed improving.

We found the home supported people to provide effective outcomes for their health and wellbeing. We saw there was effective referral and liaison with health care professionals when needed to support people.

We looked at how staff were recruited and the processes to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people. We saw required checks had been made to help ensure staff employed were ‘fit’ to work with vulnerable people.

We found there were sufficient staff on duty to meet people’s care needs.

Staff said they were supported through induction, appraisal and the home’s training programme. We identified some areas that needed further development and found that some of these had also been identified by the managers. We received reassurance after our inspection visit that some issues, such as formal supervision for staff, had now been updated.

Care was organised so any risks were assessed and plans put in place to maximise people’s independence whilst help ensure people’s safety.

The staff we spoke with described how they would recognise abuse and the action they would take to ensure actual or potential harm was reported. Training records confirmed staff had undertaken safeguarding training in-house. All of the staff we spoke with were clear about the need to report any concerns they had.

Arrangements were in place for checking the environment to ensure it was safe. For example, health and safety checks were completed on a regular basis so hazards could be identified. Planned development / maintenance was assessed and planned well so that people were living in a comfortable environment.

The home was clean and we there were systems in place to manage the control of infection.

Staff sought consent from people before providing support. When people were unable to consent, the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 were followed in that an assessment of the person’s mental capacity was made.

When necessary, referrals had been made to support people on a Deprivation of Liberty [DoLS] authorisation. DoLS is part of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and aims to ensure people in care homes and hospitals are looked after in a way that does not inappropriately restrict their freedom unless it is in their best interests. The applications were being monitored by the registered manager of the home.

We saw people’s dietary needs were managed with reference to individual preferences and choice. Meal time was seen to be a relaxed and