Albert Suites at Battersea Place

Updated 4 September 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Albert Suites at Battersea Place 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, however they were not registered with the CQC. The registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

The provider completed 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, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who lived at the care home and two visitors. We also spoke with the interim general manager, the manager, a nurse, four care workers, a chef and the activities coordinator.

We looked at a range of records, including three care plans, five staff files, medicines records, governance and training records.

After the inspection

We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection. This included training and supervision records, some policies and procedures.

Updated 4 September 2021

Albert Suites at Battersea Place is a ‘care home’ and provides personal care with nursing for up to 30 older people. At the time of our inspection, there were eight people living at the home.

People’s experience of using this service

People using the service and their relatives were happy that they were safe and well cared for.

Despite the positive feedback, we found some aspects related to the management of the service had deteriorated since the previous inspection. There had been some changes to the management of the service and also some restructuring of its set up was also being considered. These changes had an impact on the morale within the staff team, the provider’s engagement with staff and also some aspects of its quality assurance checks which had not been completed in the period since the previous registered manager left.

There were enough staff employed to meet people's needs and there were robust recruitment procedures in place which meant that staff were safe to work with people. Risks to people were reviewed every month which meant they were supported to remain as safe as possible. People were supported to take their medicines in a safe manner. We were assured that the provider had safe infection prevention and control procedures in place, including in relation to the management of COVID-19.

Staff were offered a mixture of face to face and online training.

People were supported to eat a balanced diet with a daily changing menu and a variety of alternative dishes always available. Care plans reflected people's personal preferences and their support needs. There was a good activities programme on offer, with both individual and group activities taking place. These were delivered in line with people's wishes. The provider listened and responded when concerns or complaints were raised.

Some aspects of the service were managed well. The new manager was approachable and wanted to engage and encourage feedback from people and staff. The provider worked with local partners to ensure people received the appropriate support.

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.

The last rating for this service was good (published 28 June 2018).

Why we inspected

We received some concerns in relation to the management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-led only.

We also used a targeted approach to look at specific concerns we had about training and food under the Key Question of Effective. As we only looked at part of Effective, we have not changed the rating from the previous inspection for this Key Question.

We reviewed all the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other Key Questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for the Key Questions of Caring and Responsive were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

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 work alongside the provider and the relevant local authorities to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.