Albert House Nursing Home

Updated 2 May 2025

Date of assessment: 12 to 25 May 2025. Albert House Nursing Home is a care home registered to provide accommodation, nursing, and personal care. The service provides care and support to up to 38 older people. At the time of the assessment there were 35 people using the service. At our last assessment, published May 2024, the service was rated good. The provider was in breach of the legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment. We carried out this assessment to review actions taken by the provider following our last assessment. Improvements were found, and the provider was no longer in breach of this regulation. We assessed 14 quality statements in safe, effective and well led. At this assessment we found the provider was in breach of the legal regulation relating to good governance. The rating for the well led key question has changed to requires improvement. The ratings for the quality statements we did not assess remain unchanged. This means the overall rating for the service has remained good. Some improvements had been made since the last assessment; although further work was required to ensure people’s individual and environmental risks were consistently assessed. Governance systems were not always effective in monitoring and improving the quality of the service in relation to incidents, individual and environmental risks. Provider oversight was insufficient to effectively monitor and address the shortfalls identified. Our observations of the care provided were positive and overall people and their relatives told us they were satisfied with the service. Medicines were managed safely, and health professionals told us they had good communication and positive working relationships with the service. Staff spoke positively of their work and felt supported by the management team. The provider was responsive to shortfalls identified and committed to making improvements. We asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

Updated 2 May 2025

We spoke with 10 people who used the service and 11 relatives about their experience of the care provided. Some people could not directly tell us about their experiences, which meant we spent time observing interactions with staff. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI), a structured observation tool to help us understand their experience and assess whether they received good care. We observed a calm and supportive environment, where people were supported to move about the service independently. Areas of the service were decorated to enhance the experience of people living with dementia. Staff interactions were positive, people appeared well cared for and staff demonstrated an understanding of people’s needs. Most people and relatives spoke positively of their experience, one person said, “It’s excellent as far as I’m concerned.” A relative said, “Love it, they are very kind and caring, nothing is too much trouble for them.” While most people and relatives expressed general satisfaction with their care they received, our assessment found some elements of care did not meet the expected standards.