The Acorns received an overall Good rating following a focused inspection of safe, caring, and well-led domains, with people reporting positive experiences and staff demonstrating kind, person-centred care. Well-led was downgraded to Requires Improvement due to quality audits failing to identify infection control, medication record-keeping, and governance concerns found during inspection.
Concerns (4)
moderateInfection control: “Staff were not consistently following safe infection prevention and control practices. We observed several staff wearing coats and/or long-sleeved clothing which presented a risk of cross infection.”
moderate
Governance
: “A range of quality audits had not always been instrumental in identifying or resolving the issues we found during our inspection. Systems and processes require embedding into practice.”
minorRecord keeping: “During our inspection we found some minor recording issues and temperatures were not being recorded of storage areas.”
minorMedication management: “We found some minor recording issues and temperatures were not being recorded of storage areas. Following our inspection, the registered manager took action to address these issues.”
Strengths
· Risks associated with people's care were identified and actions taken to minimise risk; support plans contained sufficient information for staff to safely manage risks.
· People were supported to receive their medicines safely by staff who were trained and competent to administer medicines.
· Staff received training in safeguarding and knew what action to take to keep people safe.
· Sufficient numbers of suitable staff were observed, and safe recruitment processes were operated.
· The registered manager had a system to monitor and review accidents and incidents to identify trends and mitigate future risks.
Quality-Statement breakdown (13)
safe: Preventing and controlling infectionNot rated
safe: Assessing risk, safety monitoring and managementNot rated
safe: Using medicines safelyNot rated
safe: Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and avoidable harmNot rated
safe: Staffing and recruitmentNot rated
safe: Learning lessons when things go wrongNot rated
caring: Ensuring people are well treated and supported; respecting equality and diversityNot rated
caring: Supporting people to express their views and be involved in making decisions about their careNot rated
caring: Respecting and promoting people's privacy, dignity and independenceNot rated
well-led: Continuous learning and improving careNot rated
well-led: Managers and staff being clear about their roles, and understanding quality performance, risks and regulatory requirementsNot rated
well-led: Engaging and involving people using the service, the public and staff, fully considering their equality characteristicsNot rated
well-led: Working in partnership with othersNot rated