- Care home
Archived: St. Catherines Residential Care Home
Report from 28 April 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
St Catherine's Residential Care Home is a residential home providing personal care and accommodation for up to 22 people some of whom live with dementia. At the time of the assessment, the service was supporting 21 people.
The assessment was prompted due to concerns CQC had received about the service and an aged rating. We carried out our on-site assessment on 21, 22 May and 05 June 2025. This was an unannounced assessment. Our off-site assessment activity was concluded on 03 July 2025. During this assessment, we looked at quality statements from the safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led key questions.
The provider’s systems were not always effective in ensuring people received safe care and treatment. We found care records were not always accurate and did not reflect people’s known health conditions. Care plans and risk assessments lacked guidance for staff on helping people to manage their health conditions. People’s medicines were not managed safely in line with the best practice guidance. Risks to people were not consistently reviewed. Accidents and incidents had not been analysed for learning and development.
Although the provider had audits in place, these were not effective as they had not identified the issues we found during this assessment. Governance systems had failed to drive the necessary improvements in the service, which included improvements in the care environment and identification of the risk of potential harm to people living at the service.
People were supported by staff who had generally been recruited in line with safe recruitment practices. However, we identified one instance where the registered manager had not followed the required procedures to ensure safe recruitment. Specifically, the recruitment records for one staff member lacked evidence that all necessary safety checks had been completed prior to their employment.
The provider was in breach of 3 legal regulations relating to the need for consent, safe care and treatment and governance systems. However, we found no evidence that people had been harmed. Systems were either not in place or robust enough to demonstrate governance was effectively managed.
In instances where CQC has begun a process of regulatory action, we may publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded, if the action has been taken forward.
People's experience of this service
People and relatives told us overall they were satisfied with the care and support they received at St Catherine's Residential Care Home. We saw interactions between people and staff were warm and friendly. Relatives told us staff were kind and caring and knew their family member’s support needs well. One relative told us, “They go over and beyond what is required of them.”
We received some mixed views from people and their relatives about food at the service and choice of meals. One person said, “I am well fed, and the food is quite good. I don’t know what’s for lunch and I never ask.” However, other people told us the food was not always good and wanted more choice and variety, especially in the evenings. One person said, “The food is sometimes good and other times not good.” A relative told us, “If I had a slight critique, it would be about the variety of food, especially in the evenings.”
There were designated staff facilitating activities and opportunities for people helping to reduce social isolation. Most people we spoke with said there was enough to do at the service. One person told us, “There are enough activities if you want to take part. I join in with the games sometimes. There’s always something going on.”
People and relatives knew how to raise concerns if they needed to.