Freelands Croft Care Home

Updated 24 May 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. We did this to understand if the service was prepared to prevent or manage an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

Two inspectors carried out the inspection

Service and service type

Freelands Croft Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and we looked at both during this inspection.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Inspection activity, including our visit to the service location, took place on 12 April 2022.

We spent time observing care and support in the shared areas of the home.

We spoke with four people about their experience of the service. We spoke with nine members of staff, including the registered manager and regional director. We spoke on the phone with a healthcare professional who had been working closely with the service.

We looked at a range of records related to the management of the service, including a sample of people’s care records. We reviewed three people’s care and support in detail by referring to their care plans, talking to staff and observing or talking about their care.

We reviewed all the evidence collected in relation to our assessment framework to make our judgements.

Updated 24 May 2022

About the service

Freelands Croft Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 64 people. The service provides support to older people who may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 56 people using the service.

Accommodation is in a purpose-built building on two floors.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We were assured the service had procedures in place to prevent and control infection. The provider protected people’s rights if they lacked capacity to make decisions about whether to stay at Freelands Croft Care Home.

People had good outcomes from the care, support and treatment they received.

People had a service that was well managed and well-led. The leadership and culture promoted high-quality, person-centred care leading to positive outcomes for people. Staff morale was positive after an exceptional period of stress in the adult social care sector, and there was an up-beat, cheerful atmosphere.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found 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 5 December 2019).

Why we inspected

We carried out this inspection in response to information we received in relation to people’s care and treatment meeting their changing needs. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of responsive and well-led only.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections. This is to provide assurance the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

We looked at how the provider complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. We look at this in all care home inspection. This is to provide assurance the service protects people's human rights if they are not able to consent to their care and treatment.

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 not changed following this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Freelands Croft Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.