Seathorne Court Residential Home

Updated 3 October 2024

Date of assessment: The assessment started on 6 March 2025 when we visited the service location. The assessment finished on 24 March 2025 when we gave feedback to the provider. The service is a care home without nursing supporting older and younger people, some of whom are living with dementia and/or physical disabilities. The service is registered to support up to 24 people. At the time of the assessment, there were 19 people living at the service.

Since our last assessment the service has made improvements to the environment. All repairs or replacements had taken place to windows, furniture and fixings. The provider had built an extension with a large, newly paved garden area to give people more options for utilising the outdoor space.

We found some errors in the stock records of people’s medicines. Care plans, while written using a person-centred approach, were lacking enough detail to guide staff about people’s health conditions and to ensure risks were managed safely. The provider acted quickly to rectify these concerns.

The provider ensured systems were in place to train staff about how to identify concerns and report any safeguarding events. There was a positive open culture of empowering people and staff and working well with external professionals to meet people’s needs. The environment was clean, well maintained and spaciously designed to meet the needs of people living there. There was sufficient staffing and robust processes in place for checking staff’s suitability for their role prior to employment.

People’s consent was sought and DoLS applied for where people were no longer able to make their own decisions. Staff understood people’s communication needs and preferences and supported people to remain as independent as possible.

Updated 3 October 2024

Not everyone at the service was able to easily communicate with us. Where this was the case, we used a combination of CQC’s observation tool (SOFI), written feedback and used a communication board. We also looked a people’s care records and spoke to their relatives to gain a fuller understanding of their experiences.

People were really happy living at the service and were supported to access a variety of external health professionals where needed. They told us the staff were kind, knew them well and respected their choices. They told us they felt safe because of the care they received. They were happy to approach the staff or registered manager if they ever had any concerns. People thought the environment was well kept and clean and the food was good. People told us they had a variety of ways to spend their time and could receive visitors without restriction. One person told us, “I am happy living here, the staff are lovely.” A relative said, “It’s absolutely first class. The staff are friendly and go out of their way to make sure people are ok.”