Ridgecourt Residential Care Home

Updated 19 February 2022

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic we are looking at how services manage infection control and visiting arrangements. This was a targeted inspection looking at the infection prevention and control measures the provider had in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 27 January 2022 and was announced. We gave the service six days notice of the inspection.

Updated 19 February 2022

About the service: Ridgecourt Residential Care Home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 17 older people some of whom were living with dementia. People who live at the home access nursing care through the local community healthcare teams. At the time of the inspection 14 people were living at the home.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People, relatives and healthcare professionals spoke very highly of the home. People said they felt safe and well cared for. People’s preferences were respected and staff were sensitive and attentive to people’s needs.

• Staff were seen to be kind, caring and friendly and it was clear staff knew people and their relatives well.

• People, relatives, staff and healthcare professionals said the home was well managed. One relative described the home as “The best in the west country.”

• There were sufficient numbers of staff employed to ensure people’s needs were met. However, some people thought the staffing at night should be increased from the one waking and one sleeping-in member of staff currently on duty: the registered manager said they would review this with the provider.

• Recruitment practices were safe and staff received the training and support they required for their role.

• Risks associated with people’s healthcare needs were assessed and managed well. However, the actions being taken to reduce risks were not always recorded in people’s care records. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to safeguard people.

• People and their relatives were involved in making decisions about their care. Care plans still required some improvement to reflect level of knowledge held by the staff about people’s needs and their preferences. The operations manager said the soon to be implemented electronic care planning system would address this.

• People received their medicines safely and as prescribed. Medicine management practices were safe.

• The home was spacious and well furnished. The environment was safe and equipment regularly serviced to ensure it remained in safe working order.

• Consideration was given to providing a variety of social activities for people to enjoy. However, some people said they would like to see more planned activities and the registered manager said they would review this.

• A new quality assurance system to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the home was being developed and introduced.

The service met the characteristics for a rating of “good” in all the key questions we inspected. Therefore, our overall rating for the service after this inspection was “good”.

Rating at last inspection: requires improvement (March 2018).

Why we inspected: This inspection was scheduled based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the home until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

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