St Denis Lodge Residential Home

Updated 12 February 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 the coronavirus pandemic we are looking at the preparedness of care homes in relation to infection prevention and control. This was a targeted inspection looking at the infection control and prevention measures the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 2 February 2021 and was announced.

Updated 12 February 2021

About the service

St Denis Lodge Residential home is a residential care home providing personal care without nursing for up to 21 older people. At the time of the inspection 21 people were living at the home. Some people had limited verbal communication, so we captured some of their experiences through observations.

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

People told us they were happy living at the home and they felt safe. Systems to monitor the service had improved. However, in some areas not enough improvement had occurred since the last inspection. The new manager had already identified changes to put in place and was implementing them. It was not yet clear how sustainable these changes would be.

The management strove to be open and continually develop and improve the support people received. They were aware of their responsibility to notify the Care Quality Commission of certain events in line with their statutory obligations.

All people were comfortable in the presence of staff. People and relatives were positive about how safe their family members were. Medicines were administered and managed safely. Staff competency checks for medicine administration were improved during the inspection. Risks to people had been identified with ways to mitigate them in place.

People were supported by enough staff to meet their needs. Although staff levels had not always been good the management had recognised this and taken steps to resolve it. Staff had received a range of training and good induction when they started.

People’s care plans were in the process of being personalised. They already provided a range of information for staff to use to support people’s needs and wishes. There were good links with other health and social care professionals to meet the needs of people living at the home.

Staff were kind and caring and knew the people living at the home well. Staff respected privacy and dignity throughout the inspection. Links had been developed within the wider community which had a positive impact for people. Independence was promoted, as were the values of treating each person as an individual.

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 had not always supported this practice. The new manager had ensured these were updated in line with current guidance.

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 4 December 2018) and there were concerns about systems to audit the service and capacity and consent. Improvements were found at this inspection although it was not clear whether changes were now sustainable.

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.