Frognal House Care Home

Updated 29 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.

Inspection team

This inspection was completed by three inspectors, a specialist advisor, and two Expert by Experience. The Expert by Experience made telephone and video calls to people and their relatives to obtain feedback about their experience of the care provided. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Sunrise of Frognal is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as 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 registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we looked at all the information we had about the service. This information included statutory notifications that the provider had sent to CQC. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spoke with 10 people and 17 relatives of people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with seven members of staff, including the deputy manager, the registered manager, the regional director and a visiting healthcare professional. We reviewed a range of records, this included six people’s care records and medication records. We looked at five staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at infection prevention and control and quality assurance records.

Updated 29 May 2021

About the service

Sunrise of Frognal is a residential care home registered to provide personal and nursing care for up to 131 people in two adapted buildings. There were 58 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

Sunrise Senior Living Limited and Sunrise UK Operations Limited are dual registered and both providers are jointly responsible for service delivery at Sunrise of Frognal

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

People and their relatives gave us positive feedback about their safety and told us that staff treated them well. The registered manager and staff understood what abuse was, the types of abuse and the signs to look for. Staff completed risk assessments for every person, and they were up to date with clear guidance for staff to reduce risks. There were enough staff on duty to support people safely and in a timely manner. Staffing levels were consistently maintained to meet the assessed needs of people. The provider carried out comprehensive background checks of staff before they started work. Medicines were managed safely.

Staff kept the premises clean and safe. The provider had a system to manage accidents and incidents to reduce the likelihood of them happening again.

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.

Systems and processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service were in place. There was a clear management structure in place and staff were aware of the roles of the management team. The service had a positive culture, where people and staff told us they felt the provider cared about their opinions and included them in decisions. The registered manager had knowledge about people living at the home and made sure they kept staff updated about any changes to people’s needs. They encouraged and empowered people and their relatives to be involved in service improvements through periodic meetings. The provider had worked effectively in partnership with a range of healthcare professionals.

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 2 September 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 13 and 14 June 2019 and breaches of legal requirements were found. We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions were not looked at on this occasion and 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 Sunrise of Frognal on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service and if we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.