Seabrooke Manor Care Home

Updated 1 December 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was conducted by 3 inspectors, a medicines inspector, a nurse specialist advisor, and 2 Expert by Experience. 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

Seabrooke Manor Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced and took place on 13 and 14 June 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with 8 people who lived at the service and 2 visiting relatives. We spoke with the registered manager, the operational manager, staff on duty who included 7 care workers, 1 senior care worker, 6 nurses, the clinical lead, 1 activity co ordinator, 1 maintenance coordinator, a consultant, catering staff and the head chef.

We also looked at 25 care plans and risk assessments, 20 medicine administration records and how medicines were being managed. We looked at other records used by the provider to manage the service. We observed how people were being cared for and supported. Our observations included the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We spoke with 14 relatives by telephone about their experience of the care provided.

Updated 1 December 2023

About the service

Seabrooke Manor Care Home is a residential home providing accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care, to up to 120 people. The service provides support to people with dementia and/or mental health needs, older people and younger adults. At the time of our inspection there were 115 people using the service.

The accommodation was arranged across four separate units. One of the units specialises in providing care to people living with dementia. Most bedrooms have en-suite facilities. There is a lounge and dining room within each unit, and a garden for all people using the service.

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

The provider’s arrangements to manage medicines were not always effective as we found shortfalls around the management of covert medicines, PRN protocols and time sensitive medicines.

We also noted that while care plans were generally written in a person centred way, a few people’s medicines care plans lacked details about how to support them with their medicines so staff had all the necessary information to care for them, particularly if it was a new member of staff.

While we found that the provider worked closely with people using the service to understand their views and how they wanted to be cared for, feedback from 13 out of 14 relatives showed that they were not always engaged and kept informed about their family members.

There were systems to monitor and improve the quality of the service, but these had not identified the concerns we found as detailed above.

These included working closely with people using the service to understand their views and how they wanted to be cared for.

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.

People were happy at the service and they felt safe and well looked after.

Systems were in place to keep people safe. People received support with their mental and physical health. Staff understood people’s needs and worked closely with other professionals to assess, plan for and review people's needs and care. The staff made timely referrals and interventions when people needed support.

Risks were well managed and staff supporting people were trained to safely meet the needs of the people using the service.

There were enough suitable staff deployed to meet people’s needs. Staff received training considered mandatory by the provider such as safeguarding, manual and handling, and infection control. Staff were well supported by the registered manager who worked directly with staff.

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 changed provider and re-registered with us on 10 August 2022 and this is the first inspection.

The last rating for the service under the previous provider, HC-One Limited was good (published on 3 December 2020).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about medicines, and the safety of people. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

Please see the safe section of this full report.

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.

Recommendations

We have made recommendations for the provider to improve the management of medicines, to improve people’s care plans to make these more detailed and to also improve the way they engage and involve relatives in the service.

Follow up

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