The Rookery Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture.

At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has remained requires improvement. This meant the management and leadership was inconsistent. Leaders and the culture they created did not always support the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 54 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Shared direction and culture during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

We did not look at Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The provider fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard.

There was no evidence of a closed culture at the service, staff and the management team’s communication was open and transparent fostering an environment where staff felt able to speak up about any concerns. Although staff felt comfortable raising concerns internally, the policy information to support them to escalate concerns externally if required was inaccurate. This indicated governance arrangements had not been fully embedded.

There were limited resources or information within the service to educate or remind staff about Freedom to Speak Up, and the provider had not fully established and embedded a culture of learning from concerns raised. The whistleblowing policy had been updated and referenced the updated terminology of “speaking up”.

This meant while the culture was positive, the provider could not be assured staff were consistently equipped to raise concerns safely and effectively, particularly when issues required escalation beyond the organisation. This was discussed with the management team, and action was taken to correct the policy document and assurances were provided that staff knowledge of escalation of safeguarding concerns would be checked and retraining undertaken if required.

We did not look at Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The provider did not always have clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability or good governance. They did not always act on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, or share this securely with others when appropriate.

The registered manager had implemented more robust processes for carrying out audits and improve oversight at the home, these processes needed to be embedded to demonstrate they were effective and sustainable and ensure when concerns were noted, they were consistently addressed and followed up with appropriate action.

The policies we read had been reviewed and were improved but still needed further work to ensure they fully reflected current ways of working and legislation.

Signage to ensure visitors and residents were fully aware of the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) video surveillance in place in and around The Rookery Care Home was visible.

The matrix for staff training had been reviewed and updated to fully reflect staff training compliance and provide assurance staff had the right skills and knowledge to carry out their roles safely. This had recently been updated and needed to be reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure the management team maintained effective oversight of this. Competency records were improved and the registered manager had implemented a new knowledge checklist to complete with staff. We spoke with the management team at the time of our assessment and discussed the importance of ensuring this documentation was completed in full, dated and signed by the staff member.

Systems, audits in place and risks to the health and safety had been implemented to support the management team with identifying issues and addressing them effectively. We spoke with the registered manager about some of the issues we had identified during the course of the assessment, whilst recognising improvements had been made. The management team carried out regular management walk arounds but were not recording this to evidence their findings or actions which we suggested would improve this process. The provider had not carried out any recruitment to demonstrate improvements to safe recruitment of staff however the registered manager gave verbal assurances about how this would be improved moving forward. The registered manager was open and honest and keen to engage in further improvement work at the home with support from the provider. They recognised there was still work to do and said, “I know we still have to cross the t’s and dot the i’s”, they demonstrated genuine care for the people living at The Rookery and a desire to improve people’s lived experience of the service.

We did not look at Partnerships and communities during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

We did not look at Learning, improvement and innovation during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.