28 June 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Rendlesham Care Centre is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 33 people at the time of the inspection. Some people using the service were living with dementia. The service can support up to 60 people in one adapted building. There are three units in the service, one on the first floor and two on the ground floor. At the time of our inspection one of the units on the ground floor was closed for refurbishment.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The provider had an action plan in place and was in the process of improving the service. This was not yet fully implemented and embedded in practice. The local authority was not placing new people into the service until improvements had been made. The provider and management team were working with the local authority to evidence how improvements were being implemented. There were systems in place to learn lessons and reduce future risks.
A new manager had been employed in the service in June 2021, we received positive feedback about the manager and improvements they were making. There had been no registered manager in post since June 2020, the provider had made attempts to address this in the period between that manager leaving and the new manager being appointed.
There were systems in place to reduce the risks to people living in the service, this included risks associated with their daily living and from abuse. Medicines were managed safely, and auditing systems supported the management team to identify shortfalls and reduce them.
Staffing levels were calculated to meet people’s needs and ongoing recruitment, which was done safely, was undertaken. Infection control processes in place reduced the risks to people living in the service. Staff were wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) appropriately and a programme of COVID-19 testing was done. The provider was following government guidance relating to people having visitors.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 3 March 2018).
We undertook a targeted inspection in January 2021, following an incident where a person was harmed, which is subject to investigation. We did not examine the circumstances of the incident at this inspection but checked how people were being supported to reduce the risks of pressure ulcers developing. CQC have introduced targeted inspections to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to safe care, recording and governance. The local authority had ceased to place people in the service until improvements are made. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. The service was working on an improvement plan to address these concerns. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement, because their improvement plan had not yet been fully implemented and embedded in practice. Please see the Well-led section of this report.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
There was an ongoing investigation regarding a specific incident. This inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident.
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.
The overall rating for the service has not changed and remains 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 Rendlesham Care Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.