Eastbourne care home found to have breached legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, according to recent inspection

Care homes are judged on five categories - safety, effectiveness, care, responsiveness, and how well-led it is.

East Dean Grange Care Home in Lower Street, East Dean was given a ‘requires improvement’ rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in a report published on August 21.

The inspection took place from April 29 to June 4 with the CQC giving safety and how well-led it is a ‘requires improvement’ rating.

Effectiveness, care and responsiveness were all rated as ‘good’ in the report.

The report stated: “We undertook this assessment as we had received some information of concern regarding the negative culture within the home in particular around staff. The home was also registered under a new provider therefore required an assessment to be rated.

"We found two breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, and governance. Infection prevention and control measures were not robust.

"The home was not always clean and tidy, we observed areas of the home which posed a fire risk. This was addressed immediately following the first site visit.

"Wound care was not robust and documentation around this needed improvement.

"Governance systems and audits were not effective in identifying or addressing areas for improvement and there was a negative culture at the home between staff and management.

"The provider was receptive to our feedback and had started implementing improvements quickly.”

The report did however praise the care home for the way its staff treated people.

The report added: “People told us they felt safe at East Dean Grange and spoke positively about the staff that supported them. We observed staff treating people with kindness and compassion. Staff we spoke with were knowledgeable about people's care and support needs.

" Feedback from staff and relatives regarding staffing levels was mixed, some people felt there were enough staff and others disagreed. Our observations highlighted that staff were not always deployed in the best way to maximise interactions between staff and people.

"People and relative said they were happy to raise any issues or concerns with staff team and felt these would be dealt with appropriately.”