31 March 2022
During a routine inspection
Cranmer Court is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 62 people. The service provides support to people aged 65 years and over, some of whom are living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 36 people using the service.
The home is comprised of a ground floor, first floor and second floor. Each floor has a communal dining room and lounge, and there is an activities room and garden access on the ground floor.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were supported with their medicines and encouraged to be eating and drinking enough for a balanced diet. People were kept safe from the risk of infection and improvement had been made to the general environment for people living with cognitive impairments.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People were supported by kind and caring staff. Staff had been well trained and recruited following safe recruitment procedures. People were treated with respect and staff ensured they understood people correctly if they had any additional communication needs.
People were taking part in activities in line with their hobbies. People also were confident to raise any issues or concerns with staff and the registered manager.
Staff were supported by the registered manager and the registered manager had good oversight of the home. For example, regular quality audits were completed.
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 08 July 2020). A number of recommendations were made at our last inspection. We recommended that staff support people with their medicines in line with their communication needs; that the provider use agency staff whilst recruiting new permanent staff; that all mental capacity assessments were reviewed; that the environment of the home was improved to be more stimulating for people with cognitive impairment; to ensure quality audits were thorough and that complaints procedures were correctly followed. At this inspection we found the provider had acted upon all recommendations and made improvements to all areas previously highlighted.
Why we inspected
We inspected this location to follow up on previous recommendations and to review the previous rating. The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about medicine errors. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
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.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe section of this full report.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.