15 February 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
About the service
Acorn Hove is a residential care home which provides accommodation and personal care to 8 people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 12 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Support: People had their own individualised care plans in place, but they had not been reviewed for several months. Staff knew people well, but their needs were not always reviewed or updated regularly. Accident and incidents were not routinely monitored, which meant there were missed opportunities for learning. Robust recruitment checks were not being completed.
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.
Right Culture: The governance and quality assurance systems at the service were not robust. There were audits and action plans in place to improve the quality of care. However, these were not consistently completed and, in some cases, actions were not followed up or documented. This meant that improvements were not always implemented, the provider's governance systems were not always followed and issues around the quality of care and safety of the environment at the service were not always addressed. There was a positive culture at the service and both staff and people spoke of how approachable the interim manager was when raising concerns.
Right Care: There were sufficient staff to ensure people’s safety. People were supported in the way they wished and received care tailored to them to enhance and enrich their lives. Staff had a good understanding of people's needs and people were comfortable and happy in staff's presence. People were happy with the care provided and enjoyed living at the service. People were complementary about the staff team and the changes that had happened since our last inspection. One person commented, "[Staff] are all great. I can tell them anything. We’re like a family.”
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 14 June 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and in part due to concern we had regarding the governance at the service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
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.
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 changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. 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 Acorn Hove on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to safe recruitment of staff and the quality and assurance systems in place at this inspection. We have made a recommendation about the management of some medicines.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.