Little Croft Care Home

The following is CQC's published account of its assessment, published 17 July 2025. References to “we” mean CQC. It describes findings at that time.

Date of Assessment: 22 May 2025 to 03 June 2025.

Little Croft is a care home which provides care to older people and to people with mild dementia. The assessment included 2 site visits to the service by 2 inspectors. An Expert by Experience supported the first site visit. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. At the time of the assessment 34 people were living at the service.

At our inspection in May 2023, the service was rated requires improvement overall and in the key questions safe and well led. There were 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to staffing and recruitment, medicines and good governance. This assessment was carried out to follow up on breaches of regulations, to check improvements had been made. At this assessment, we assessed 15 quality statements in the key questions safe and well led. We found improvements had been made and the service was now rated good.

Staffing levels at the service had improved and no gaps were identified. The service was working with a lower occupancy of people. The dependency of people’s needs and staffing levels were kept under review. Recruitment practices at the service continued to be safe.

Medicines management had improved. The medicines trolleys were locked away safely. A clear system was in place, where 2 staff signed in people’s medicines. Written entries on MAR charts were double signed. People’s medicines records tallied up with the current stock. Where people’s medicines had been stopped, this taken out of the medicines systems. The reason for the medicine being discontinued was recorded.

Systems and processes were in place to assess risks to people and ensure they were safeguarded from avoidable harm. The provider learned from accidents and incidents to mitigate future risks. Infection prevention and control processes were in place and followed by staff. There were enough trained and competent staff to support people and keep them safe. The environment at the service had been maintained and improved. Checks were undertaken of the environment and equipment.

Governance systems at the service had improved with audits identifying any shortfalls. The provider was carrying out audits, which were being recorded with actions taken. Medicine and care plan audits continued to be carried out, however these had improved with good oversight in place. Quality assurance surveys carried out with the staff were now being analysed with actions in place.