11 December 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Wolston Grange is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 39 people who may have a diagnosis of dementia. The service is made up of 3 units, the main house is a two-storey building and provides accommodation for older people with dementia. The Lodge is adjoined to the main house and is a two-storey building which provides accommodation for up to 12 adults with dementia. The Barns is a separate building within the grounds of the main house, which provides accommodation for up to 5 people with dementia.
At the time of our inspection visit there were 34 people receiving care across the service.
People’s experience of the service and what we found:
At our last inspection, we found improvements were required around managing people’s risks and risks to support safe medicines management, quality of record keeping and quality assurance processes. At this inspection, we found enough improvements had been made and people were pleased with the levels of care they received. The provider was no longer in breach of the regulations.
Improvements to the management of the home by the provider and registered manager led to a service which supported good outcomes for people. The provider's quality assurance systems and processes were regular, structured and they now identified where actions were taken. Evidence and action plans showed improvement actions had been taken.
The provider had timescales to make improvements to the fire safety of the home. The provider told us they kept the fire authority updated of their timescales and actions.
We found there was a positive culture, which focused on meeting people’s needs. People spoke positively about the service and staff team. People’s views and feedback was sought on the service they received and acted upon through regular meetings and daily interactions.
People were supported to receive their medicines safely, however some improvements to the recording of certain medicines needed to be made. Following our visit, the registered manager had taken those actions. Staff received training and they had their medicine competency assessed, to ensure they followed correct procedures.
People were supported by staff who knew them well and staff were kind and attentive. People’s safety and care needs were identified, their care was assessed and planned, and their needs were met.
People’s individual preferences and lifestyle choices were respected, whilst their safety needs were balanced through risk interventions. Staff understood how to protect people from abuse and were confident the provider would take action to protect people, should this be required. Staff were also confident to refer to other agencies to keep people protected. People told us they felt safe at Wolston Grange.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People’s freedom was not unnecessarily restricted, and people were not physically restrained.
People lived in a safe, clean and maintained environment. Regular checks ensured the environment was safe. Improvements to fire safety through better signage and the updating of fire doors was being managed by the provider.
People were encouraged to personalise their rooms and some people were involved in decorating their own and communal rooms. Staff worked with people, relatives and health and social care professionals to maintain people’s overall health and wellbeing.
The provider had safe recruitment systems to ensure staff were suitable to look after people. There were enough staff on duty to support and meet people’s needs. People were involved in how their care was received and how they lived their day, such as what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement overall (published 12 January 2023). The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
Why we inspected
When we last inspected Wolston Grange on 15 September 2022, breaches of legal requirements were found. This inspection checked whether they were now meeting the legal requirements. We found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe, Effective and Well Led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Wolston Grange on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow Up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.