• Care Home
  • Care home

Smallbrook Care Home

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Suffolk Close, Horley, Surrey, RH6 7DU (01293) 772576

Provided and run by:
Asprey Healthcare Limited

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 10 September 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

Four inspectors carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

Smallbrook Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes 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.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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. The registered manager was not at the home on the day of inspection. We were supported during the inspection by the home’s deputy manager.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

Before the inspection

We reviewed the evidence we had about the service. This included any notifications of significant events, such as serious injuries or safeguarding referrals. Notifications are information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We reviewed a report from the local authority quality assurance team following their unannounced visit to the home on 29 November 2018. We did not ask the provider to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spoke with eight people who lived at the home and three relatives. We spoke with nine staff including the registered manager, the deputy manager, the head of care, the chef, the provider’s director of operations and clinical standards and four care staff.

We looked at care records for five people, including their assessments, care plans and risk assessments. We read minutes of staff meetings and residents’ and relatives’ meetings. We checked five staff recruitment files, medicines management and recording, accident and incident records, quality monitoring checks and audits.

After the inspection

The provider sent us further supporting evidence, including the home’s training record.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 10 September 2019

Smallbrook Care Home is a care home without nursing for a maximum of 41 older people, including people living with dementia, physical disabilities and long-term healthcare conditions. There were 31 people living at the home at the time of our inspection, one of whom was receiving respite care.

People’s experience of using this service:

The management and leadership of the service had improved since our last inspection. The home had a new management team, which had improved the support provided to staff and communication with people and their families.

Regular residents’ and relatives’ meetings had been introduced to keep people up-to-date with developments at the home and to ask for their feedback. Any suggestions people made had been listened to and actioned.

Staff at all levels met regularly to ensure they were providing people’s care in a safe and consistent way. Staff were encouraged to give their views about how the service could be improved and to raise any concerns they had. The management team maintained an effective oversight of the service, which ensured people’s care was well-planned and managed. Key aspects of the service, such as medicines management and infection control, were audited regularly.

The way in which risks were managed had improved. A falls protocol had been introduced to ensure that all potential contributory factors were analysed for people who were at risk of falling. There was clear guidance for staff about how to support people who displayed behaviours that challenged the service in a consistent way. Adverse events, such as accidents or complaints, were analysed and discussed with staff to ensure that learning took place and improvements were made.

There were enough staff on each shift to keep people safe and meet their needs. People were supported to maintain good health and to access healthcare services when they needed them. Staff worked well with other professionals to ensure people’s needs were met.

Staff were kind and caring and treated people with respect. They encouraged people to make choices about their care and respected their decisions.

Staff received the training they needed for their roles and had access to management support through supervision and appraisal. Staff shared information effectively to ensure people received care that reflected their needs.

People had access to a range of activities and events and had opportunities to access their local community. People’s friends and families could visit whenever they wished and were encouraged to be involved in the life of the home.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

At the last inspection on 6 March 2018 the service was rated Requires Improvement. The report of this inspection was published on 17 April 2018.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.