The Care Quality Commission
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Gardens Neurological Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

High Wych Road, Sawbridgeworth, CM21 0HH (01279) 216090

Provided and run by:
Elysium Healthcare No.2 Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 26 February to 23 May 2025.

 

Gardens Neurological Centre is a residential service providing support to adults of all ages living with complex neurological conditions, brain and/or spinal injuries. The service can accommodate up to 52 people. At the time of this assessment, the first floor of the building was not in use, so the capacity was reduced.

 

This was the first assessment carried out under our single assessment framework and was unannounced.

 

At our last inspection (report published 21 December 2023) we found breaches in regulation and rated the service Requires Improvement. At this assessment we found improvements had been made including areas relating to safe medicines management and person-centred care. The provider is no longer in breach of regulation and the service is now rated Good.

 

People were at the centre of their care and were involved in the planning and review of their care. Staff were aware of people’s likes, dislikes and preferred routines. People were supported to make decisions, with support from relatives and advocates, where appropriate.

 

Risk assessments in place were detailed, under frequent review and provided staff with clear guidance as to the way people’s care and support was to be safely delivered. The service adopted a multi-disciplinary approach with a wide range of partner agencies, including health and social care professionals, involved in ensuring the service met people’s needs.

 

Staff recruitment processes were robust, with a programme of training, support and supervision in place for all staff. We observed staff numbers to be sufficient, with people’s care needs and requests for support being met in a timely manner.

 

There was an open and transparent culture at the service. The provider acknowledged that recent changes at the service had been challenging for staff at times, but remained committed to ensuring that people, relatives and staff were kept informed and supported throughout the process.

 

The management team was receptive to the feedback we shared. They responded positively and gave assurances in ways they felt that communication and information sharing could be improved with relatives.

 

The provider had recently reviewed and adapted the quality assurance system in place. Changes made enabled effective oversight of the service, with actions completed where improvements were identified as needed. The provider was open to feedback of all types and used it as a learning opportunity.

 

19 September 2023

During a routine inspection

About the service

Gardens Neurological Centre is a residential care home providing accommodation personal and nursing care to up to 52 people. The service provides support to people with complex neurological conditions, brain or spinal injuries. At the time of our inspection there were 44 people using the service.

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

People did not receive their medicines safely and usually as prescribed and we could not be assured staff were always following prescribers’ instructions when administering medicines.

People were not always supported by staff who had received the necessary training to support them. Although when speaking with staff they felt they had the skills and experience to support people.

People's nursing needs were assessed and care and support was delivered in line with current standards, however further consideration needed to be taken to develop care plans detailing people's social and wellbeing needs.

People’s individual needs were not always met by the adaptation, design and decoration of the premises. It varied between individuals’ rooms; in some instances, they were decorated and personalised for people and others did not. The management team stated they offered the options for people to personalise their bedrooms.

The provider assessed risks to ensure people were safe. Staff took action to mitigate any identified risks.

People were kept safe from avoidable harm because staff knew them well and understood how to protect them from abuse. The registered manager and staff worked well with other agencies to do so.

People were supported by staff who treated them with respect and staff were kind and caring

Managers completed quality audits which covered all aspects of care, although some of these audits did not identify the issues, we found in the quality of care provided by some staff. There was a recent change in provider; the new provider was starting to implement a number of positive changes. Staff felt supported by managers.

Staff had not always completed people's mental capacity assessments accurately. In some cases, the content of the assessment indicated the person did not have capacity, however when speaking to the person it was evident the person had capacity to make the decision

There had been a change in management over the past 11 months working through an improvement plan for this location, where they identified some poor practices and failings which they are starting to work through. However, we found a range of problems for which we gave the provider breaches in relation to medicines and care planning. There were other failings which we accept the provider was working on we have asked for an action plan which we will be looking at closely.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 25 December 2021.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to the lack staff training, medicine management and people not receiving person centred care at this inspection.

We have made recommendation about people's social and wellbeing needs.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.