- Care home
Cherry Lodge
Report from 17 September 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 20 and 29 January 2025. The assessment was completed to follow up on the breaches of the regulations from the last inspection on 19 December 2023 when the service was rated inadequate (published 16 April 2024). The service is a residential care home for up to 27 older people. At the time of assessment there were 15 older people living at the home. The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulations of safe care and treatment, consent, staffing, reporting procedures, and safeguarding. Improvements were found and the provider was no longer in breach of these regulations. However, we found one new breach of legal regulation relating to person-centred care, and a continuing breach of legal regulation relating to governance. We found some areas which demonstrated that audits were still not fully effective or embedded to enable the provider to monitor and improve the quality of care and accuracy of documentation. This included analysis of accidents and incidents in the service. However, we found that in practice people were protected and kept safe by staff who knew their needs well. People were not always involved in the planning of their care, and people’s views were not consistently sought to improve care. Recruitment processes required more robust oversight to ensure staff were recruited safely. Medicines were stored, administered and managed safely. There was a new manager in post who was visible within the service and staff spoke positively about them. This service has been in Special Measures since April 2024. The provider demonstrated improvements that 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. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded.
People's experience of this service
During the assessment, we received feedback from 6 people who used the service and 10 relatives. People told us they felt safe in the home and with the staff who provided their care. A family member told us they felt strongly that their relative was safe both in the home and with the staff. The staff were well-liked, thought to be caring and kind, and trusted to do a competent job. People told us staff gave them choice and respected their privacy and dignity. People felt comfortable raising any concerns with staff, however, regular formal feedback from people needed improvement to ensure all views were heard.
Some people told us that they sometimes got bored, with the lack of meaningful activities. One person told us, “There are not many activities. If I do go down there’s talking and not much more going on.” Another said, “I like to keep busy and get bored with nothing to do. I need to keep my brain engaged. Surely, they [activities staff] must be able to get groups of people together for say a quiz or even bingo or a board game, there’s not much to do”. Some relatives told us they felt more meaningful time could be spent with their relative as they chose not to spend time out of their bedroom. One relative told us their family member would benefit from staff engaging in activities outside of daily living tasks, such as doing puzzles or colouring.
People and their relatives told us they were not involved in the planning and reviewing of their care plans. One person said, “I’m not aware of having a care plan”. Care plans did not include enough information about people’s strengths, goals abilities and interests to enable staff to meet all of their needs and preferences. One person said, “I just live here and goals are never talked about.” People also wanted more time to talk. One person said, “The carers have no time to talk. It would be nice if someone came in for a chat. I’ve talked more to you today than I have for ages. They don’t have any spare time”.