- Care home
Grey Gables (New Milton) Limited
Report from 19 June 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 19 June 2025
Grey Gables is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation to older and younger adults, most of whom are living with dementia. The service is registered to support up to 24 people. When we inspected, 20 people were living at Grey Gables. The provider mostly supported older people living with dementia however, at the time of our inspection there were also 4 people who had learning disabilities living at Grey Gables.
This inspection was to follow up on the progress the provider had made on the action plan they were required to submit after our previous inspection on 31 May 2024.
The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing, dignity and respect, need for consent, good governance and notification of incidents. At this inspection we found improvements were made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Since our last inspection, improvements had been made to risk assessments; people and their relatives had contributed to their assessments and measures were in place to mitigate risks. Staff had completed additional training and skill gaps noted at our previous assessment had been met. Staff had undertaken training in learning disabilities and taking observations so they could assess people’s baselines and escalate them for treatment should they become unwell.
There had been an increase in staffing at night, and we heard only appropriate and respectful comments from staff about people and their needs. However, while use of the Mental Capacity Act to ensure people’s rights were maintained had improved and they were no longer in breach of regulation, further improvements to capacity assessments were required. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making decisions on behalf of people who may lack capacity to. These have since been completed.
The service was well-led by a manager, who commenced in post after our previous assessment. They had improved oversight and governance of the service through use of effective audits and had implemented the changes that meant Grey Gables was no longer in breach of legal regulations. In addition, the nominated individual and manager were purchasing a new eCare system that would replace the outdated existing systems for medicines and care documents and further improve oversight.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
People's experience of this service
People and their relatives told us they were happy with the care provided at Grey Gables. They believed their family members received safe care from competent and respectful staff. They described a professional and efficient service and felt able to approach staff or the manager should they have a problem.
Relatives told us their loved one’s wishes had been respected such as having a male staff member support with personal care. Another relative mentioned their family member had been able to contribute ideas to the menu which made them feel involved.
We saw lots of positive interactions between people and staff and people looked relaxed throughout our inspection.