Thornton Hall & Lodge

Updated 8 February 2024

Thornton Hall & Lodge is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 96 people. The service provides support to older people including people living with dementia. At our last inspection, this service was rated good. We initiated an assessment of the service on 15 February 2024. The assessment was prompted by a review of information we held about the service. Following this assessment the service remains rated good. We identified good practice in relation to care planning, involving people to manage risk and the safe management of medicines. However, we found areas which required improvement such as staffing contingency plans, engaging people through meaningful activities and records relating to the assessment of people's mental capacity. You can find more details of our findings in the evidence categories below.

Updated 8 February 2024

People were generally happy with the care and support they received at Thornton Hall & Lodge. Comments included, "I feel happy here", "I get looked after" and "I like it very much. The people are very nice." People told us staff were kind. Our observations found staff worked hard to provide care that met people's needs and preferences. Staff respected people's wishes and promoted their independence. People told us staff were often very busy and described how they sometimes had to wait for assistance. However, overall, people felt well supported by staff. People provided mixed feedback about the quality of food. Comments included, "No problems with the food", "I like the food" and "Could be better." People were involved in day to day decisions about their care and we observed staff gaining people's consent before undertaking care. However, when people lacked the capacity to make decisions, we found records to show people's mental capacity had been assessed were not always sufficiently detailed. We were assured action was being taken to improve this area. Although people spoke positively about the staff member responsible for planning social activities, people felt they did not always have enough opportunity to engage in social activities. Comments included, "There’s not much to do" and "Not a lot goes on." We were assured action was underway to improve people's social stimulation and the registered manager was in the process of recruiting more staff to facilitate activities.