31 January 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Eboracum House is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 18 people. There were 16 people living at the home at the time of the inspection. Accommodation is provided over two floors in a detached period building with a large garden.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Since the last inspection there had been changes in the management team and the service had a new manager and operations manager. The previous registered manager had left the service 8 months ago and the provider had recently appointed the operations manager to oversee improvements at the service until a new registered manager was appointed.
The providers operations manager had now submitted an application to register themselves as the new manager of Eboracum House. We are currently assessing this application.
New systems and processes had been introduced to monitor the service, however new processes required embedding into practice and sustained to continue to drive improvements. Staff felt supported by the manager and told us they were approachable and felt ‘things had improved’ at Eboracum House.
Some actions recommended in the services fire risk assessment, which was completed in October 2022, such as fire evacuation drills had not been completed and personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) required more detail. The manager responded after the inspection. They confirmed all the actions from the fire risk assessment and PEEPS had now been completed.
The home was clean, but areas of the home were tired and required refurbishment and redecoration. The manager shared a refurbishment plan with us, and we could see some refurbishment and redecoration of the home had commenced.
People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse. Risks in relation to people's care were identified and detailed information about how risks could be mitigated. People were protected from the risk and spread of infections. Accidents and incidents were recorded and analysed to identify any trends or patterns. This helped to mitigate future risks and ensured lessons were learned. The provider had a safe recruitment process which assisted them in recruiting suitable staff.
A training plan evidenced staff had received appropriate training to carry out their roles effectively. Competency assessments were also in place for things such as medicine administration.
People's needs were assessed, and care delivered in line with best practice. Care plans and supporting documentation included people's individual choices and preferences. We observed lunch being served and found people were supported to maintain a healthy and balanced diet which included their preferences.
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.
Throughout the inspection we observed staff interacting with people in a caring and considerate way. We saw staff gaining people's consent prior to carrying out care tasks. People we spoke with were complimentary about the care and support they received.
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 requires improvement (published 23 July 2021). Although we saw improvements had been made, the service remains rated requires improvement.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Eboracum House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.