The Hermitage Care Home

The Hermitage Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 30 people. The service provides support to older people and those living with dementia and or mental health needs. At the time of our inspection there were 28 people using the service. The service historically only offered placements to females. The new providers have respected this decision and the service continues to only support females.

People have access to accommodation on one level. Most bedrooms had en-suite facilities. The home is near local shops and people have access to outside space. People share a large open plan lounge and dining area.

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

The new provider of this service has made significant changes since taking over the service. Improvements had been made to the accommodation and the overall safety of the care people received. We found more personalised care was needed however the provider was aware of this and had plans to improve this area in the future.

People were supported by sufficient staff who received training to support them in their role. Staff had access to detailed care plans that explained the care people needed. Risks to people’s safety were mitigated and people received their medicine as prescribed.

The home was clean, and the risk of infection was reduced by effective infection, prevention and control measures being followed. People’s healthcare needs were met, and people had access to a balanced diet. We questioned the length of time meals times took as some people were seated at the table for a long period of time. The provider told us this was an area they will review with staff to see how this can be improved.

People were treated with kindness and referred to others in the home as a family. People’s dignity was preserved, and people were encouraged to be involved in decisions about their care.

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.

The team worked alongside others to ensure people’s needs were met and referrals were made to other agencies when needed. People were given information in a format they could understand and supported to maintain relationships which were important to them.

People did have access to activities. However, these were often in communal settings and people told us they would like to be able to do more. Staff were trained to support people with learning disabilities, but some staff wanted more support with keeping people active.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

The provider had a vision for the home and worked alongside the registered manager to make the necessary changes. People and staff described the new management team as approachable and were confident issues would be resolved. Good governance systems were in place and the provider has a process for ensuring lessons were learnt when things went wrong, and the information was shared.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 03 December 2021and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was inadequate, published on 06 July 2021.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.