24 May 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Highgrove House is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 43 people. The service supports older people and people who may be living with dementia or a physical disability. At the time of the inspection there were 40 people living at the home.
The home is set over 2 floors and has communal areas available for people to use. Visitors can access the garden and car parking.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We have made a recommendation about the management of some medicines. People were kept safe, and looked after by enough staff that knew people well. A relative said, “[My relative] is well looked after, the carers are brilliant.” Risks to people’s health, and environmental risks were assessed and monitored. The home was clean and comfortable. The registered manager monitored incidents to make sure any lessons were learned to improve outcomes for people.
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 supported by staff that received good levels of induction and training and people’s needs were assessed holistically. People spoke positively about the food and were supported to eat and drink healthily. People’s wider healthcare needs were met by external agencies when required.
We found a positive culture at Highgrove House and improvements had been made regarding the governance of the service. Staff kept in touch with people and their relatives, and relatives spoke highly of the support given. One relative said, “They ring me up straight away if anything happens, they are very caring.”
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 10 June 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 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.
We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 28 April 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Highgrove 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.