23 April 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Alfriston Court Care Home is a nursing home providing personal and nursing care to 27 people aged 65 and over. At the time of the inspection there were 23 people living in one adapted building. People living at the home had a range of needs. Some people were living with dementia whilst some had clinical needs and those associated with old age.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We found that improvements had been made following the last inspection.
Quality and governance systems had improved however they had not been fully established and embedded into everyday practice. This meant areas needing improvement were not always identified and responded to effectively. We found some care plans were not complete. This included the absence of suitable care plans to support people with dementia, their mental health and emotional needs. Management and medicine audits had not identified missing and poorly completed records. These areas were identified as needing improvement.
People were protected from the risks of harm, abuse or discrimination because staff knew what actions to take if they identified concerns. There were enough staff working to provide the support people needed and recruitment practice ensured only suitable staff worked at the service.
There were suitable arrangements in place to assess and respond to any risk to people and to provide people with their prescribed medicines safely. Infection prevention control measures meant the service was clean and people were protected, as far as possible, from the risk of COVID-19.
People received personalised care that was delivered by staff who had a good understanding of their needs and how they should be met.
People had access to health professionals to promote their health. People had regular contact with the activity staff to promote social interaction and minimise any risk of isolation. Visiting was taking place in line with government guidelines. Complaints were listened to and resolved in a timely way.
The new manager had established a positive culture at the service and was supportive to people and staff. They understood their responsibilities and was making positive changes in the service to improve outcomes for people. There was a clear management structure with the manager supported by a clinical lead and a team of registered nurses.
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 26 July 2019).
At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by our internal intelligence systems that assesses potential risks at services, taking account of concerns in relation to aspects of care provision and previous ratings and any enforcement. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe, Responsive and Well-led only. This enabled us to review any potential risks and review the previous inspection ratings.
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.
During the inspection no areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Alfriston Court Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.