• Care Home
  • Care home

St Mary's Court

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Deanery Hill, Bocking, Braintree, Essex, CM7 5SR (01376) 328600

Provided and run by:
Sonnet Care Homes (Essex) Limited

Report from 9 February 2024 assessment

Ratings

  • Overall

    Requires improvement

  • Safe

    Requires improvement

  • Effective

    Requires improvement

  • Caring

    Good

  • Responsive

    Requires improvement

  • Well-led

    Requires improvement

Our view of the service

St Mary’s Court is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to older people, some of whom are living with dementia. We completed this assessment between 28 February and 8 March 2024. This was a comprehensive assessment covering all key questions and quality statements. We found 4 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, person-centred care, consent to care and treatment and governance. The provider had not always assessed risks to people's health and safety or mitigated risks when identified. People’s care did not always reflect their personal preferences and the provider had not appropriately assessed, monitored, or reviewed people’s capacity to make decisions about their care. Governance systems and audits were not effective in identifying or addressing areas for improvement.

People's experience of this service

During the assessment we spoke with 10 people and 20 relatives. People and those important to them told us the service did not always provide good quality, safe care which met people’s needs and preferences. People said there had been a lot of changes in staffing and there were not always enough staff available to provide support when needed. Relatives felt staff did not always know people well or understand their individual healthcare needs. People and relatives did not always feel involved in reviewing their care. We received mixed feedback about how well the service was managed. Relatives told us they had not always been informed about changes in the service or the impact this may have on their loved ones. They told us communication from the provider had been poor. However, people and relatives confirmed recent improvements had been made in the service with a more stable management team now in place and more permanent staff recruited.