Tralee Rest Home

Tralee Rest Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 36 people. The service provides support to older people and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 32 people using the service. The service was being provided in an adapted building based in a residential area of Whitstable.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People and their relatives were positive about the staff who provided support to them. People were happy in the company of staff. Staff spoke to people in a kind and caring way. However, there were concerns about the governance of the service and the support provided to people.

People were not always kept safe where there were risks from their health conditions. For example, risk assessments were not always in place and guidance from health care professionals had not always been followed. Care plans were not up to date and did not include the guidance staff needed to ensure they knew how to safely and effectively support people. There were significant risks from the environment which had not been identified and addressed prior to the inspection. For example, risks from fire and from hazards that could increase the risk from falls. Medicines had not always been stored at the correct temperature increasing the risk they were not effective. There were risks from cross contamination increasing the risk of the spread of infection.

The provider addressed the serious concerns identified at the inspection. However, governance systems in place at the service had not always identified these concerns prior to the inspection and were not effective at improving and maintaining safety and quality. Staff understood how to raise a safeguarding if concerns arose about abuse. However, the provider and register manager had failed to act to protect people from risk The registered manager had raised some issues with the provider; however, the provider had not always acted to address these.

There were gaps in care records which meant that the care provided to people could not always be effectively monitored to ensure people were getting the right support.

There were enough staff to support people and staff were recruited safely. The registered manager understood their responsibility under duty of candour. There were opportunities to feedback their views.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were offered day to day choices and staff knew how to support people to make decision as appropriate.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 16 December 2021)

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns about managing risks for people and fire safety. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Tralee Rest Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to good governance at this inspection.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Tralee Rest Home is a residential care home. At the time of the inspection they were providing accommodation and personal care to 24 people. The service can support up to 36 people and is registered to provide support to older people and people living with dementia. The service was being provided in one adapted building based in a residential area of Whitstable.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Feedback from people and their relatives was positive. Comments included, “We have a good time here, dancing and a good sign song.” And “Tralee is a really special place. It really is a 'home' for the residents.” And, “ I can't thank [the registered manager] and all [their] staff enough for the warm, safe family environment they have created at Tralee so that my [relative] and all the residents can have a good quality of life.”

People were protected from the risk of abuse. They were supported by staff who knew them well and had information about their risks and how to mitigate them. Medicines were managed safely. There was enough staff to support people and staff had been recruited safely. When incidents occurred, action was taken to reduce the risk of these occurring again. There were systems in place to ensure people were protected from the risk of infection.

People’s needs were assessed. This included needs relating to people’s equality needs such as disability, religion or sexuality. People had support to access healthcare when they needed this. There was support for people with eating and drinking and feedback about the food was positive. The service was adapted to meet people’s needs including where people had dementia.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were offered choices and had a say in their care. Staff understood the mental capacity act 2005 and how this applied to the people they supported.

People were happy with their care which was person centred. There were activities for people and the service was lively. There were quieter spaces for people to spend time if they wanted to. There was a complaints policy in place and people knew how to complain if they wanted to do so. Complaints had been responded to appropriately.

Staff were happy in their role and were positive about the management of the service. Staff received support and supervision. People knew who the manager was and were happy to approach them when they wanted to speak with them. People, relatives and staff were all invited to provide feedback through surveys and meetings. There were quality checks in place to drive forward improvements. The service worked in partnership with other agencies such as health and social care professionals.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 04 September 2019 and this is the first inspection.

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was Requires Improvement, published on 26 January 2019.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information 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.