- Care home
Alice House
Assessment report published 7 June 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 25 March to 7 April 2025.
Alice House is a care home which provides care to older people with dementia. The assessment included 2 site visits to the service by 2 inspectors. An Expert by Experience supported the first site visit. A second Expert by Experience made calls to people’s family to gather their feedback. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
At our last assessment, the service was rated inadequate overall and in the key questions safe and well led. There were 7 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing, recruitment, medicines optimisation and good governance. We served 2 warning notices in relation to safeguarding and good governance. This assessment was carried out to follow up on the 2 warning notices, to check improvements had been made. We did not follow up on the other breaches of regulation identified at the last assessment.
At this assessment, we assessed 2 quality statements in the key questions safe and well led. The scores for the quality statements we did not assess remain unchanged. Although further work was needed to develop and embed new governance processes, sufficient progress had been made to address the shortfalls identified in the previous warning notices. The service continues to be rated inadequate.
Due to the overall rating of inadequate, the service remains in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.
Improvements had been made to the oversight of the service at both service and provider level. The provider was working closely with a care consultant and the local authority to implement new governance systems. A new manager had been appointed since the last assessment who was in the process of registering with CQC. Regular provider visits to the service were being completed, with an overall service improvement plan in place.
Safeguarding incidents were being reported in a timely manner. Where people displayed distressed behaviours or had fallen, incidents were reviewed by the manager with appropriate actions recorded. The manager was in the process of reviewing each person’s care plan and risk assessments.
Governance systems had improved with new systems and processes in place. This included the oversight of medicines, staffing, infection prevention and control, safeguarding, care plans and risk assessments. Although improvements had been made, further work was needed to embed changes and further develop governance processes relating to staffing, recruitment and safeguarding.
People's experience of this service
Whilst most relatives told us the service had improved, we received some mixed feedback about aspects of the service. We spoke to relatives and asked if they were made aware if their family member had fallen or been involved in any incidents. We received the following comments, “The staff ring if there are any incidents, they haven’t had falls but ring if they get angry, so I know what is going on, they have discussions, they are looking at what causes this” and “Yes, I had a call about three weeks ago. They had a bruise”.
We spoke to relatives about the leadership of the service. They were complimentary overall about the new manager, but also aware ongoing improvements were being made to the service. One relative told us, “Things are better, the manager sat with us for over an hour, wanted to know about their past interests. I used to ask to see the manager and raised things, but they were never resolved. Now the new manager says she is happy to see us and phone anytime”, “I feel more confident in the new manager in the home, they are more receptive. When I need an answer, they are less dismissive. Some changes are being made. It seems to be good” and “There is a new management team. I do not know the name of the manager I have met her, nice lady. I have no issues with her. I would go to her.”
Relatives felt people were safe living at the service. Their comments included, “I am 90% happy with the care they get. There are concerns with regards to falling and bruising. I am led to believe, there is a pressure mat that activates an alarm”, “I do feel they are safe and well looked after. I did not have concerns before, there are a few things which are better. There were certain residents that were posing a risk, and they are no longer in the home” and “Yes, it is safe, I haven’t any concerns, when you visit everything seems nice.”
Some relatives told us communication could be improved and raised concerns about lost property. Comments included, “Communication is not great, they would phone me up when something happened, but not so much now”,” The only issue is the communication, the carers need to understand so they can provide the correct support”, “I feel a bit disappointed in the lack of communication. I think it has not got any better, it has got worse” and “We lost some items, we have not had any correspondence.”
We observed positive interactions; staff were attentive to people’s needs. The atmosphere in the service was calm and friendly.