Lansdowne Hill Care Home

Updated 18 September 2024

Date of assessment: 4 October 2024 to 12 December 2024. This assessment was carried out in response to concerns received about risk management and the management of medicines. The service had also experienced frequent changes in management within the last 12 months. At the time of the assessment, the service was being overseen by an interim support manager and another manager within the company. We initially looked at 8 quality statements, but later expanded the assessment due to additional concerns identified. Staff were kind and caring and offered people choices. Staff were knowledgeable about safeguarding and people’s identified risks. Staff knew how to respond in an emergency and the service’s systems and processes supported this. For example, people had personal evacuation plans in place to support a safe evacuation in the event of a fire. There was a positive culture where staff felt listened to. People’s feedback was sought, and actions were taken as a result. There was a culture of continuous improvement within the service. Staff were positive about the current management structure. However, some staff raised concerns about staffing levels because it impacted people’s needs being met in a timely way. We found some evidence to support this. We found gaps in people’s records relating to their care. This meant it would be difficult to monitor whether people’s needs and wishes were being met. We raised this with the provider who gave assurances they would take action to address this and found improvements were made during the assessment. We found two incidents which had not been reported to the Commission, in line with the provider’s legal responsibilities. Staff had completed most of their mandatory training. There were plans by the interim management to complete any additional required training.

Updated 18 September 2024

People described staff as pleasant, kind and caring, and were happy living at the service. People felt safe and their relatives agreed. Risks were managed with appropriate equipment in place. Relatives had mixed opinions about their involvement with care planning and reviewing. Relatives felt the frequent changes in management in recent years had affected the standard of care. However, all felt the interim management arrangements were resolving many of the issues which resulted from the frequent changes. One person told us they “can’t always get the staff” and many relatives also felt staffing levels were not sufficient. Some relatives told us communication could be improved; however, the interim management team were working to address this as they had already identified this as an area for improvement. Many relatives felt the general care could be improved. For example, one relative described an issue around incontinence aids. Other relatives told us how items had gone missing such as their relative’s glasses and other personal items. We raised this feedback with the interim management team who confirmed they had already addressed the concerns. Relatives told us they wanted to see the “right manager permanently in place.”