Stuart House

Updated 1 May 2025

Date of assessment: 29 May to 3 June 2025. Stuart House is a care home providing support to up to 20 older people, most of whom live with advanced dementia. There were 16 people living at the service when we inspected.

This inspection was undertaken to review the breaches in regulations found during the last inspection which was undertaken in April and May 2022. These breaches related to safety and good governance at the service. The provider completed an action plan in response to the concerns found during that inspection. We found the actions outlined on the action plan had been completed. There were no breaches identified during this inspection.

Staff received regular supervisions and were well supported by the registered manager.

Activities were person-led and flexible. Staff adapted activities based on individual preferences and people’s sensory needs.

Meals were varied and tailored to people’s dietary needs. People enjoyed their food, and support was provided to people when needed.

People were settled and well-cared for. Staff were attentive and responsive. People and their relatives expressed high satisfaction with the care they received.

Staff comments about working at the service included, “I really like working here”, “I’m really happy when I come here, everyone is a friend” and “I really enjoy my job. I love seeing all the different people, helping out and making their lives better.”

Systems were in place to manage medicines appropriately. However, we identified some concerns with ‘as and when’ medicines and the recording for why these were administered. Although systems were in place to ensure continuity of care, these had not been fully utilised for one person during our inspection visit. Risks to people were generally well-managed but not all instances of potential risks had been recorded. Improvements have been made following our inspection visit, including updates to ‘as and when’ protocols. Regular internal and external checks and audits were conducted. However, they had failed to prevent or identify the concerns found during this inspection.

Updated 1 May 2025

Not everyone who lived at the home was able to tell us in detail about their experiences. However, one person told us, “Staff are very good.” Another said, “Staff are great.” We spent time observing the care and support people received from staff and saw people experienced high quality person-centred care from staff who were very attentive and knew them well. We also spoke with people’s relatives who told us about the staff and the care they provided. Their comments included, “[Name of person] really likes all the staff”, “They (staff) are very good”, “The staff are fantastic with [name of person]; I can’t fault them”, and “I believe [name of person] is receiving the best care available. I don’t have any concerns.”

Relatives were positive about the care and support people received. One said, “I’m happy with the care [name of person] is receiving.” Another told us, “[Name of person] has settled. [They] think this is their home.” And another said, “I’m happy with the care [name of person] is receiving.”

One relative described the impact moving to Stuart House had on their loved one. They said, “We know [they are] much happier. They were in [other homes] and every time we visited they were very weepy and asking when they could go home constantly, they were always apologising because they thought they had done something wrong. This stopped immediately when they moved to Stuart House. I can’t say enough good things about them.”