Nursing home in Lancashire is rated as Inadequate and placed into special measures by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told the provider of Windsor Road Mental Nursing Home, on Windsor Road, in Ansdell, that they must make urgent improvements in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people living there.

During an unannounced inspection of the home in June this year, inspectors found that the registered provider, The Richmond Fellowship, was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, well led or responsive to people’s needs.

Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall, CQC has rated Windsor Road Mental Nursing Home as Inadequate and placed the home into special measures.

A full report from the inspection has been published on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-121175682.

Windsor Road Mental Nursing Home provides care and accommodation for up to 11 adults who have enduring mental health needs. The report identifies a number of areas of concern, including:

• Staff at the home were failing to fully safeguard residents from the risk of harm as there was a lack of staff knowledge on how to identify or respond to the risk of abuse. Following the visit, inspectors asked the manager to make nine referrals to the local authority safeguarding team.
• Inspectors found evidence of safeguarding incidents having occurred at the home that had not been referred to the local authority team for investigation or notified to CQC, as required by law.
• A review of training records showed that staff were not always provided with sufficient training and supervision. In addition some staff told inspectors they felt that they had not received the appropriate training to be able to provide the specialised care for people living at the service with complex and enduring mental health needs.
• Gaps in risk assessments meant that people were not adequately protected and peoples care plans were not being updated with new information to ensure staff were fully aware of developing concerns or people’s changing care needs.
• People living in the home were not kept safe due to poor medicines management. Inspectors found significant gaps, omissions and inconsistencies in medication records, leading to the risk that medication may not be administered appropriately or correctly.
• Inspectors found that people living at the home were not always protected against avoidable harm and quality assurance systems in place had failed to identify or resolve associated risk. Inspectors communicated these concerns to local commissioning teams and ensured that the standard of risk management at the service was addressed by the provider before leaving the site.

Debbie Westhead, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:

“The care we observed at Windsor Road Mental Nursing Home falls well below the standard we expect from care providers. It is unacceptable that avoidable risks were not reported or investigated thoroughly and that people were not being safeguarded from the risk of avoidable harm. It is essential that the provider takes action to address all of the concerns.

“As the registered provider, they have a responsibility to ensure that people are safe and protected and that their needs are fully met. All people living at the home have a right to receive care which is of a high quality, compassionate and safe. The provider must take action to address the concerns that we have identified as a priority.

"Since the inspection we have been working closely with the local authority to ensure that residents are not at risk. We have placed this service in special measures and are considering the need to take further action in relation to this provider. We will report on any action we do decide to take when it is completed.

“We will re-inspect the home within six months to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the service being provided remains inadequate, we will consider taking further steps to cancel its registration with CQC."

Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.

Ends

For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Mark Humphreys on 0191 233 3519. For media enquiries about the Care Quality Commission, please call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here (please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters).

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