13 August 2020
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Acorn Lodge is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 40 older people, the majority of whom were living with dementia. At the time of the inspection, 23 people were living at the home. The home accommodates people in one adapted building.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Additional staff were required to support people with activities. All other aspects of care were provided when people needed. We found that paperwork was not always up to date or accurate and analysis of accidents and incidents was required. We have made recommendations around this.
Relatives felt their family members were safe at the service and that staff treated people well. Staff were knowledgeable around the risks associated with people’s care and any clinical concerns were addressed appropriately.
The service was clean, and staff adhered to appropriate infection control measures. Relatives felt involved in their family members care and were complimentary about the communication from staff about their loved ones.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update:
The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published 21 October 2019). At this inspection we found concerns that related to the robustness of records, the deployment of staff and the requirement to have a registered manager.
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to risks associated with people’s care and the management of people’s nursing care needs. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has remained Requires Improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the Safe and Well Led sections of this full report. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Acorn Lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.