Gracefield Nursing Home and Residential Care Home

Updated 10 February 2021

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe, and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 1 February 2021 and was unannounced.

Updated 10 February 2021

About the service

Gracefield Nursing Home and Residential Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation, personal and nursing care to 15 people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 17 people. The location is an adapted and extended single storey residential building and is located on the outskirts of the rural village of Dry Drayton near Cambridge.

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

Trained staff followed the systems in place to monitor and manage people’s risks and keep people safe from poor care and harm. Staff followed guidelines to prevent the spread of infection. Staff who had been trained and their competency checked, managed and administered people’s prescribed medicines safely.

Staff received training, supervisions and appraisals from the registered manager that developed their skills and knowledge. The provider and registered manager supported staff to develop through further training. Learning from recent dementia training had meant that the service was being redecorated to be more dementia friendly.

Staff treated the people they supported with kindness. People liked the staff that cared for them. Staff promoted and maintained people’s privacy and dignity. People enjoyed the activities that went on at the service. Links were established with the local community and relatives were encouraged to visit the service and attend special events such as festive parties being held.

People were supported to eat and drink enough amounts. People, where possible, were involved in making decisions about their care. Staff gave and respected people’s choices. Their preferences on how staff delivered their care was recorded in their care records for staff to follow. This included people’s end of life wishes.

The service was well managed by a registered manager. Staff were expected to provide a good-quality service to people. Staff used the governance systems in place such as audits and feedback, to monitor the quality of care being delivered to people. The owner of the service carried out visits to spot check the quality of the service provided.

People and their relatives were made aware of the complaints process should they need to use it. Stakeholders, people, their relatives and staff were given opportunities to give their view of the service and from this feedback action was taken to make any improvements.

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 registered manager and staff worked with external health professionals to make sure people’s well-being was promoted.

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 15 July 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.