14 November 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
George Potter House is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 69 people. At the time of our inspection there were 38 older people living at the care home. The care home accommodates people in 1 adapted building built over 2 floors, each with their own separate facilities.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The overwhelming number of people we spoke with talked positively about the care home. A person’s relative told us, “My [family member] is taken care of at George Potter House and I am sure she is happy living there.”
People were kept safe and were confident any concerns they raised would be listened to. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff received training on how to recognise and report abuse and knew how to apply this knowledge. Staff were aware of how to manage risks people they supported might face and how to keep them safe. Enough staff were deployed to meet people’s assessed needs whose suitability and fitness to work at the care home had been thoroughly assessed. The premises was kept clean and tidy and staff followed current best practice guidelines regarding the prevention and control of infection. People received their prescribed medicines as and when they should.
Staff had the right levels of training, support and experience to deliver effective care and meet the needs of people living at the care home. People had access to a wide variety of food and drink that met their dietary needs and wishes. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community. People lived in a safe, well-maintained and comfortable environment. 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 provider promoted an open and inclusive culture which sought the views of people living in the care home, their relatives, and staff working there. Staff knew and understood people, and responded well to people’s individual needs. The provider worked well with external health and social care agencies and professionals to plan and deliver people’s packages of care.
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 overall (published 6 June 2023). At our last inspection we recommended the provider consider current guidance on medicines recording and act to update their practice. At this inspection we found the provider had acted upon our recommendation and improved how they managed medicines records.
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to how the care home was being managed, specifically in relating to medicines, nutrition and record keeping. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.
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 and for both key questions safe and effective remains good, and the rating for the key question well-led remains requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm however, we have found evidence that the provider needs to make further improvements.
Please see the well-led section of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for George Potter House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified issues in relation to how the provider operates their governance systems and have made a recommendation about how they manage their oversight and scrutiny practices.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect. If we receive any concerning information, we may inspect sooner.