Newbury Grove

Updated 17 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 8 February 2022 and was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Updated 17 February 2022

About the service

Gracewell of Newbury is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care, as single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

This care home is run by two providers; namely, Gracewell Healthcare 3 Limited and Gracewell Healthcare Limited. These two providers have a dual registration and are jointly responsible for the services at the home. This report is in relation to Gracewell Healthcare 3 Limited. A separate report has been produced for Gracewell Healthcare Limited.

Gracewell of Newbury accommodates up to 68 people in one building over three floors. The first floor was the ‘Memory Care’ community, which had been designed as a living space suitable for people living with dementia. There were 64 people living in the home at the time of inspection. People living at the service were older people, some of whom were living with dementia.

People's experience of using this service

The service provided exceptionally responsive, person-centred support to people which consistently achieved outstanding outcomes for people.Staff provided excellent consistency and continuity of care which had a major impact on people’s quality of life.

Staff were particularly skilled at involving people and their family, together with health and social care professionals in their care and support plans, so that they felt consulted, empowered, listened to and valued.

Staff consistently went the extra mile to find out what people have done in the past to enable people to carry out person-centred activities which enriched the quality of their lives.People were supported to maintain relationships that mattered to them which protected them from the risk of social isolation and loneliness.

The registered manager used concerns to improve the service. For example, a Hydration Project initiated within the service had significantly reduced the number of falls, infections and weight loss experienced by people living in the home.

The service worked closely with healthcare professionals and provided outstanding end of life care, which ensured people experienced a comfortable, dignified and pain-free death.

People were supported by a stable core staff group who were kind, caring and inspired by the registered manager to deliver high quality, personalised care.

People were protected from discrimination, neglect, avoidable harm, and abuse by staff. Risks to people's safety had been identified and assessed. Staff followed people’s risk management plans to keep them safe. People received their prescribed medicines safely, from staff who had their competency to administer medicines assessed. People’s medicines management plans were reviewed regularly to ensure continued administration was still required to meet their needs.

High standards of cleanliness and hygiene were maintained throughout the home, which reduced the risk of infection. Staff followed the required standards of food safety and hygiene, when preparing, serving and handling food.

Staff felt valued and respected by the management team, and consistently demonstrated high levels of morale.Staff had the required skills to meet people’s needs effectively, which led to good outcomes for people’s care and support and promoted their quality of life.

People’s care plans were comprehensive, providing staff with the required information about their needs and how to meet them.

The registered manager had worked effectively with local organisations, health and social care professionals and multi-disciplinary teams and was often the driving force to improve outcomes for people, through joined up care provision.

Rating at the last inspection

At the last inspection the service was rated Good (published 26 September 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We did not identify any concerns at this inspection. We will therefore aim to re-inspect this service within the published time scale for services rated good. We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive.

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