Driftwood House

At the time of our assessment, there were 24 people using the service. The service is a residential care home providing care and support to older people, all of whom were living with dementia except for one person. This service has been under new ownership since August 2022, and this was the provider’s first assessment.

At this assessment we identified concerns with the safe management of medicines. Improvements were required relating to the storage, recording, auditing and disposal of medicines to ensure they were safe. Some areas of the service posed environmental risks to people and parts of the kitchen were not clean and measures were not in place to ensure effective prevention and control of infection. These issues constituted breaches of regulation relating to safe care and treatment. We brought all of these issues to the attention of the provider and they took immediate action aimed to reduce the risks.

The service had undergone some recent and significant changes to the management structure and the provider was in the process of identifying some shortfalls within the service and taking action. The quality and effectiveness of audits was of concern. However, the acting manager and regional and quality team had independently identified some of the concerns themselves and had already begun to put measures in place to address them. More recent quality assurances processes were good.

The service was well staffed, and staff were skilled and kind. Training and support for staff was good. People’s health needs were mostly well managed, but some recording needed to improve to ensure people’s pressure care needs were fully met and their care needs overall were reviewed with them and their relatives, if appropriate.

The provider had taken over some staff from the former provider, and the staff culture had changed during this process. This had been a difficult process for some staff but most were now very positive about the culture and values of the service.

The provider showed a commitment to improving the fabric of the service and was embracing new technologies aimed to reduce risk and increase people’s quality of life. However, they needed to ensure people’s needs were fully met during this process. The provider accepted the feedback from this assessment and took immediate and positive steps to affect the changes required. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.