Grenville Court Care Home

Updated 20 May 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.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was conducted by two inspectors, one of whom specialised in the management of people’s medicines and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type

Grenville Court Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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 in place. They were not registered with the CQC at the time of the inspection, but they had applied to do so. This application was being processed.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

Inspection activity started on 12 April 2021 when we visited the service and ended on 19 April 2021 when we provided feedback to the manager and three representatives of the provider.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we held about the service including notifications the provider had to send us by law and feedback from the public. We also requested information from the local authority who are a commissioner of the service. We used this information to plan our inspection.

The provider was not asked to complete 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people living in Grenville Court Care Home during our visit, along with five staff and the manager. As most people living in the service were unable to provide us with feedback about the care they received, we spent time within the communal areas, observing how staff interacted with people and the support they received.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records, two staff recruitment and training files and multiple medicine records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were also reviewed.

On 13 April 2021, we spoke with three relatives over the telephone to gain their feedback regarding the quality of care provided.

Updated 20 May 2021

About the service

Grenville Court Care Home is a residential care home that can provide accommodation and personal care to 64 people aged 65 and over. The care home is run over two floors, each with its own lounges and dining area. People have their own rooms with an en-suite toilet. At the time of our inspection there were 13 people living in the home.

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

The care people received had improved since our last inspection. The provider had implemented a new management team and structure to drive improvement within the service.

The provider’s governance systems had been reviewed and management oversight increased. Although improvements had been made in this area, we found some shortfalls in risk and medicines management that the provider had not identified and therefore corrected. The provider and manager took immediate action in response to our feedback. However, this demonstrated the revised systems were not yet fully embedded and therefore, further improvements are required. We have made a recommendation about governance and monitoring.

People and relatives told us they were happy with the quality of care provided. During our visit, we observed people were happy and contented. Staff were respectful and demonstrated patience and kindness.

Systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse. Communication about people’s needs had improved. This gave staff the knowledge they required to ensure they could provide people with appropriate care.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and to keep them safe. The required checks had been made to ensure new staff working in the service were safe to do so.

Since our last inspection, staff had received further training to ensure they were competent to support people living in Grenville Court. They were happy working in the service and felt supported.

The service and equipment people used was clean. Systems were in place to reduce the risk of the spread of infection.

The new management team and provider had instilled a person-centred culture within the service. People, relatives and staff told us they were open and approachable. The management team worked well with organisations for the benefit of people living in the service.

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 Inadequate (published 21 October 2020).

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

This service has been in Special Measures since October 2020. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced focused inspection of this service on 6 August 2020. Multiple breaches of legal requirements were found. We wrote to the provider after that inspection and asked them to take urgent action to keep people safe. They provided us with an action plan telling us how they would do this.

We continued to receive concerns about the quality of care provided and therefore, conducted a further inspection in September 2020 to check whether the provider had made enough improvement. We found they had not, and legal requirements continued to be breached. We took urgent enforcement action to stop them from admitting people into the service. We also told them to tell us each week how they ensured staff were appropriately trained and competent to provide people with safe care. This information has been received from the provider as required.

We undertook this focused inspection to check whether the provider had made the required improvements and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from Inadequate to Requires Improvement. 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 Grenville Court Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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 the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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.