Grove House Residential Care Home

Updated 10 February 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors.

Service and service type

Grove House Residential Care Home is a ‘care home’. People receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and sought feedback from local authority who work with the service. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with 7 people who lived at Grove House Residential Care Home and 1 person’s relative to find out what it was like to live at the home and to gather their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 8 members of staff including the nominated individual, team leader, a senior care assistant, care assistants and a member of the home’s housekeeping staff. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records including 7 people's care records and 8 people's medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and support. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service, including, the provider’s quality monitoring systems, audits and checks and policies and procedures.

Updated 10 February 2023

About the service

Grove House Residential Home is a care home and is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to 29 older people. At the time of our inspection 22 people lived at the home and 3 people were in hospital. Accommodation is provided in a two-storey adapted building.

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

The lack of provider and management level oversight meant some previously demonstrated standards and regulatory compliance had not been maintained. Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service and drive improvement were not effective. The provider had not ensured risks associated with people's care, the homes environment and fire safety were well-managed. This exposed people to the risk of avoidable harm.

People felt safe and staff understood their responsibilities to keep people safe. Staff were recruited safely and were available to support people when needed. Some aspects of medicines management and the prevention and control of infection required improvement.

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 supported this practice. People were supported to maintain relationships that were important to them and had access to health and social care professionals when needed.

People and a relative were satisfied with the service provided. They spoke highly of the staff who provided their care and support and the way the home was managed. Staff felt supported. The management and staff team worked in partnership with other health and social care professionals to benefit people.

The nominated individual acknowledged our inspection feedback which they used to improve safety and make service improvements.

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 this service was requires improvement (published 26 November 2019). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last five consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

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

This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe and well-led.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, and well-led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Grove House Residential Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We identified breaches in relation to people’s safety, the safety of the environment, and governance of the service.

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 meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.