Cuckfield care home ‘always striving to improve practice’

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Pelham House in London Road, Cuckfield, on August 11-12, and found the care home was not always safe and well-led, rating it ‘requires improvement’.

The CQC report, which has since been published, said the inspection was prompted following concerns received about call bells not being answered quickly, walking aids being removed from people, lack of activities and a task centred culture.

As a result, it undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of ‘safe’ and ‘well-led’ only.

The report said: “We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

“The overall rating for the service has changed from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements.”

In response, Amanda Brown, registered manager, said: “There were no breaches of the regulations in the latest CQC report, there were only good practice suggestions.

“Unfortunately homes that only have a few good practice suggestions can get the same ‘requires improvement’ rating as homes in breach of the regulations with legal requirements set on them as a result.

“This does not seem proportional or a fair rating system. However, as we are always striving to improve practice we have already implemented the good practice suggestions in the CQC report.

“In addition the local authority quality monitoring teams have no concerns with Pelham house, we work with a lot of professional’s and we have an open door policy, we welcome constructive feedback on our service, our residents come first and we strive every day to offer the person centred care that they deserve.”

The CQC report said there were enough staff working to provide the support people needed.

It said staff could recognise and knew how to report suspected abuse or poor practice.

It added: “The provider and registered manager were working hard to promote a positive and empowering culture at the service.

“Staff spoke highly of the service and confirmed they felt supported within their roles.

“People and their relatives spoke highly of the registered manager and of the homely atmosphere within the service.”