The Rookery Care Home

Updated 11 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 care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice is safe and that services are compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has 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 25 January 2022 and was announced. We gave the service 24-hour notice of the inspection.

Updated 11 February 2022

About the service

The Rookery Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to older people, some of whom live with dementia. The service can support up to 30 people. At the time of our inspection there were 21 people living at the service. Care was delivered over two floors in one building, with lift access.

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

Improvements were found to the recruitment and training processes; People lived in a clean home where infection control measures followed government guidelines. The provider had updated their Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) procedure to reflect national COVID-19 guidance. Issues identified at our last inspection to assess and manage all risks had been actioned and rectified to ensure people were kept safe. Medicines were managed safely, and people received them as prescribed. Systems were in place to keep people safe

The provider and the manager demonstrated a willingness to make further improvements and had implemented service improvement plans to evidence how they were committed to improve the running of the service.

Systems and new processes to drive improvement had been implemented to ensure quality care was being delivered. More robust monitoring processes were in place and improvements had been noted. However, the service still required improvement in some areas.

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 requires improvement (published 03 March 2021). 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 Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment), Regulation 17 (Good Governance), Regulation 18 (Staffing) and Regulation 19 (Fit and Proper Persons employed).

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulation 12 (Safe Care and Treatment) and 17 (Good Governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. We also checked whether the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements regarding Regulation 18 (Staffing) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and Regulation 18 Registration Regulations 2009 Notifications.

This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has not changed. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.