Alexandra Lodge Care Home

Updated 23 February 2024

Alexandra Lodge is a “care home” providing personal care and support to older people, people living with dementia and people who are living with sensory impairment. At the time of the assessment, the service was supporting 3 people with their personal care needs. On our second visit as part of the same assessment there were 2 people receiving care and support at the home. Alexandra Lodge was last rated Inadequate (published 17 November 2023) The report was published following CQC’s old inspection approach using key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), prompts and ratings characteristics. This assessment has been completed following the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) new approach to assessment; Single Assessment Framework (SAF). We carried out our on-site assessment on 18 March 2024 and 8 April 2024. This was an unannounced assessment, which means the provider was not told an assessment was going to be starting beforehand. During this assessment we looked at 12 quality statements; Learning culture; Safeguarding; Involving people to manage risks; Safe environments; Safe and effective staffing; Infection prevention and control; Medicines Optimisation; Assessing needs; Delivering evidence-based care and treatment; Governance, management, and sustainability; Freedom to speak up; Learning, improvement, and innovation. We assessed some but not all quality statements at this visit which means we use the ratings from the previous inspection to rate the key questions of safe, effective, and well-led.

Updated 23 February 2024

People spoke positively about the service and relatives told us they felt their family member was safe at the home. However, people’s care plans did not contain risk assessments and other key pieces of information to guide staff. Staff felt confident reporting any concerns to the registered manager but were not always clear about reporting concerns to external agencies, but the home did have appropriate policies in place to guide staff on this. People told us there were enough staff to meet people’s needs but did recognise that there was only a small number of people currently living at the home. Staff knew people well but had not all received appropriate training to fulfil their roles. People were given choices to promote the control they had over their daily lives but restrictions in place were not always documented appropriately or carried out under the necessary legal framework. We observed that staff had developed positive relationships with people and people were treated with kindness.