Dewdown House

Updated 24 November 2020

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 care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 5 November 2020 and was announced.

Updated 24 November 2020

About the service

Dewdown House is a residential care home. It provides accommodation and personal care for up to 40 older people, some of whom are living with dementia. At the time of the inspection there were 36 people living at Dewdown House.

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

The environment was homely, clean and well maintained. Thoughtful consideration had been given to how the environment could meet people’s needs and support people to remain independent.

People participated in a range of activities of their choice. Religious prayer and hymns were offered daily in line with the ethos of the organisation. People from any faith group were welcomed.

Care plans and risk assessments were individualised and showed how people preferred to be supported. People’s privacy and dignity was respected and maintained. People’s visitors were welcomed at the service and people were supported to retain social relationships.

Staff were kind and caring. There was a positive and happy atmosphere. Staff knew people well and spent time engaging with people.

Improvements had been made to quality monitoring and to the systems to support the identification and actions of safeguarding concerns, accidents and incidents. Care plans and medicines were regularly reviewed, and actions were taken in a reasonable timeframe around areas identified. The provider implemented measures to protect people around the risks from hot surfaces and water.

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 service was well led and managed.

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 3 January 2019).

At the last inspection a breach was identified in Regulation 18; Notification of Other Incidents of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. A recommendation was made in relation to managing the risks from hot water and surfaces.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of Regulation 18 (Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009). The recommendation had been met.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.