Enter and View Report: Cressington Court Care Home

In December 2024 we visited Cressington Court Care Home, owned by Lotus Care. It is registered to provide general residential care for older people and EMI care (care for older people with dementia). It is situated in a purpose-built building in Aigburth. The home has 2 floors and can house up to 54 residents, mostly in single bedrooms but there are some double bedrooms available. All rooms have ensuite toilets and wash basins and the care home does not charge top up fees.

Summary

Cressington Court looked and smelt clean and was tidy and in good condition with some nice homely and personalised touches. We feel a few areas could be improved, such as more signage and wayfinding particularly on the first floor. Some areas seemed dark due to slow acting sensor lights. We feel the overall environment could be made more dementia friendly. 

It should be noted that the manager is new in post and has already made changes to improve the environment such as the colourful painted bedroom doors upstairs. We have also received positive feedback from partners about improvements that the manager is making to the care home. 

We received mixed feedback from the residents we spoke to. We saw many positive and caring interactions between staff and residents. However, we felt that there were not enough care staff to provide consistently responsive and timely care for all the residents. One resident did comment that staff were doing the best they could with the time they have. We mentioned this to the manager at the end of our visit. 

As a result of the above we are making the following recommendations

Recommendations

• Review staffing levels accounting for the individual building design and residents’ needs to ensure that consistent, responsive and timely care can be provided. Discuss with staff, residents and families if they feel that staffing levels are appropriate.
• Discuss with family and residents about the food provided and its presentation as we received some mixed feedback from the residents we spoke to.
• Look to make changes to the environment where possible to make it more Dementia friendly and ensure that lighting is working well across all areas. 

Positives and good practice

• Cressington Court Care Home seemed clean and smelled pleasant throughout. Cleaners were visible during our visit and also supported residents.
• Staff came across as caring and interacted kindly and effectively with residents even whilst they were carrying out other tasks. The use of reminders on care plans for glasses and hearing aids is also an excellent idea for supporting residents who cannot communicate this.
• The signage around the home for reporting lost items and reporting repairs was thorough and even included QR codes for people to use. The care home seemed to be in good condition whilst we were there, and we saw maintenance staff in the building.