St Marks Residential Care Home

Although this inspection showed on-going improvements, not having effective governance systems in place has impacted on the service achieving an improved rating.

The provider's governance systems were still not strong enough to demonstrate how the management of the service was able to independently identify and act on risk, which placed people at risk of harm. Or, have effective planning in place to demonstrate how they are going to achieve and sustained improved ratings and ensure people receive good quality and safe care at all times. This is especially important as the service has not achieved an overall good rating since 2015.

The provider has taken action to address breaches in regulation, but because the governance systems have not been strong enough, it has led to repeated, or recurring breaches.

The management were reactive during the inspection to address issues we brought to their attention, which had not been identified through their own quality assurance checks.

Where a person's relative felt staff provided safe care, they also commented that they could only go by what they saw when they visited. Another relative told us about the ongoing improvements in the quality of food, activities, environment, management, and staff. The relative said, "They're all very friendly and lovely."

Throughout the inspection, we saw positive relationships between people and the staff who supported them. Also, we saw the friendships forming between new and existing people using the service, as they shared their life experiences and interests.

Staff were motivated and took pride in telling us where they had been able to put their training into practice to support people's welfare. Improvements were still needed in planning training, how they can make resident meetings more inclusive and driving improvements. We have made recommendations to the provider regarding these areas.