• Care Home
  • Care home

The Grange

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Whinbush Way, Darlington, County Durham, DL1 3PT (01325) 464900

Provided and run by:
Highgate Care Services Ltd

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 11 November 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

One inspector carried out this inspection.

Service and service type

The Grange is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the registered manager 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was to ensure we could visit the service safely.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the regional manager, registered manager, deputy manager, one senior care staff, two care staff and two healthcare professionals.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records, health and safety records, various medicines records and two staff recruitment records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 11 November 2020

About the service

The Grange accommodates up to 74 people with residential care needs in a purpose-built building. 59 people were using the service at the time of the inspection.

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

People were protected from risks. Monitoring of health and safety procedures and equipment was in place and these systems were well embedded. There were enough staff on duty to meet people’s needs. Appropriate arrangements were in place for the safe administration and recording of medicines. Infection prevention and control procedures were in place to reduce the risk of infection and to keep people safe.

The provider and registered manager monitored the quality of the service to make sure they delivered a high standard of care. Professionals we spoke with said the services communicated with them well and they received clear information from staff about people's wellbeing.

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 12 May 2020) and there was one breach of regulation. 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 improvement had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a focused inspection base don risk. We carried out an unannounced inspection of this service on 5 and 6 December 2019. One breach of legislation relating to safe care was found. The provider had failed to take steps to minimise the risk of legionella at the service. On this visit we found the service had made improvements and now met all required regulations.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of 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 changed from requires improvement to 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 The Grange 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.