12 April 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Knells Country House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 24 people. The service provides support to older people, some of whom are living with dementia-related conditions. At the time of our inspection there were 18 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and relatives had many positive comments about the caring, welcoming and warm atmosphere in the home. Relatives said the service provided individual and fulfilling lifestyles for people.
People and relatives said it was a safe place to live. Risks to people were now assessed and managed in a safe way. There had been improvements to the way medicines were managed.
There were enough staff to support people. New staff were appropriately vetted before they started to work at the home.
Since the last inspection a new manager had been appointed. They were putting training and development plans in place for each staff member. Relatives commented on how knowledgeable staff were in supporting people.
People were supported with their individual dietary needs and preferences. They described the meals as “very good”. The staff team also supported people to access health care services when necessary.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service upheld this practice.
People, relatives and staff had confidence in the management of the home. The manager carried out audits to ensure the safe running of the service. Areas for improvement were set out in a development plan.
The provider was committed to continuing improvements at the home including a refurbishment plan with input from people, relatives and staff members.
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 requires improvement (published 9 November 2022). 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 September 2022. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve good governance.
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, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements.
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 requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at 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 read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Knells Country House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.