Acorn Care Home

Updated 9 January 2021

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC's response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe, and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 14 December 2020 and was announced.

Updated 9 January 2021

About the service

Acorn Care Home is registered to provide nursing, personal care and accommodation to a maximum of 22 people. People who live there have a primary diagnosis of rare, including korsakoff’s type, dementia. At the time of the inspection 21 people were residing at the home and one person was in hospital.

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

Relatives and staff felt the service was well-led. They told us the management team, nursing and other staff were good. Provider feedback processes had been used to gather information about the views of people and stakeholders about the service provision. The registered manager understood their regulatory responsibilities and their requirement to provide us (CQC) with notifications about important events and incidents that occurred whilst the service was delivering care. Improvements were needed relating to quality assurance systems as a number of issues were identified during our inspection.

People felt safe and were supported by staff who knew how to protect them from avoidable harm. Individual risks to people were assessed and monitored to minimise accidents and injury. People received their medication at intervals as it had been prescribed. There were sufficient staff to meet people's needs. Recruitment processes aimed to ensure staff were safe and suitable to work. Overall the premises were visibly clean.

People were supported by their families and staff to have life choices. Staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and supported people in a non-restrictive way as was possible that accorded with their best interests. Training had been received by staff. People were supported by staff who knew them well. People’s physical healthcare and mental health needs were monitored by external healthcare professionals.

Relatives and people felt staff were caring and patient and treated them with dignity and respect. People were encouraged wherever possible to maintain their independence. Visitors were made to feel welcome.

Reviews of people’s care and support needs were undertaken regularly. People and their family were included in these processes to ensure their needs were known. Relatives confirmed they would feel comfortable to raise any complaints they had with the staff or registered manager. Activity needs of people were determined and acted upon.

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 good (published 23 August 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.