26 April 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
St Clare House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 29 older people who may be living with a physical disability, mental health needs and/or dementia. At the time of our inspection, 28 people were using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People gave very positive feedback about the service and the care and support staff provided. However, there were inconsistencies in how risks were identified and managed.
People’s care plans and risk assessments had not been reviewed and updated as their needs changed. Whilst people’s medicines were mostly managed safely, action was needed to ensure good practice guidance was consistently followed. There were some environmental risks, which needed to be addressed. For example, to ensure robust window-opening restrictors were in place and to check and make sure all areas of the service were thoroughly cleaned.
We could not be certain people were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives or that staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. We made a recommendation in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
The provider and registered manager were extremely responsive to feedback and took immediate action to address concerns. Whilst no one had been harmed because of the concerns we found, we spoke with the provider and registered manager about developing their approach to auditing to ensure issues would be proactively identified and addressed in future.
People felt safe living at the service. Staff were safely recruited, and sufficient numbers of staff were deployed to meet people’s needs.
The registered manager was very approachable and with people, their relatives and professionals to help ensure people’s needs were met and improve their quality of life. They were committed to providing person-centred care and promoted a person-centred culture within the service.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 19 December 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This was a focussed inspection. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe and well-led.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Clare House 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.