Archived: Dunedin Residential Home

Updated 21 February 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.'

This inspection took place on the 26 July 2017 and was unannounced. It was undertaken by two Inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of caring for older people and people living with dementia.

Reports from the local authority and other health care professionals have been considered at this inspection. In addition the Commission required the provider to submit monthly reports to help demonstrate improvements and effective auditing. These have also helped to inform this inspection.

Whilst at the service we spoke with four people who lived at the service and two of their relatives, four members of staff, the deputy manager and manager as well as the cook. We observed staff providing care to people during the day and reviewed relevant documentation relating to care planning, risk assessments, quality monitoring, medication and recruitment.

Updated 21 February 2018

Our previous inspections of Dunedin Residential Home found significant failures and risks for people living in the service. It was rated as Inadequate in October 2016 and placed into special measures. We also took action to restrict admissions and for the provider to submit to us, each month, a report on how the service was improving the areas of concern. We returned to the service in February 2017 to assess whether the service had improved. It continued to be Inadequate and remained in special measures.

At this inspection we found that whilst the manager had made some improvements to the service, they were not adequately supported by the provider. There was a lack of oversight, resources and infrastructure to ensure that the service provided consistent safe and good quality care. It therefore remains in special measures and the Care Quality Commission is taking further action. We will report on this once it is concluded.

Dunedin Residential Home is registered with the commission to provide care to up to 21 people over the age of 65, who may or may not be living with dementia. At the time of this inspection there were nine people living at the service.

The service is operated as a partnership, with three people registered as making up this partnership, within the report they will be referred to as the provider.

The manager had been in place for a number of months, they had yet to register with the commission at the time of inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility or meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We found that people were not always kept safe as there were insufficient staff deployed on shifts and whilst staff knew people well and were kind, they were not able to meet their care needs as they did not have sufficient time.

Risk assessments were in place and mitigations were reflective of people’s needs, however staff were unable to ensure people were safe as they did not have the time to ensure risks were mitigated appropriately.

People told us that staff were kind and caring but they often had to wait for care to be delivered.

Staff had completed training required to enable them to meet people’s needs and the manager was trying to implement a series of supervision and appraisals although these had not been effectively implemented. Recruitment processes were robust and staff had relevant checks in pace to ensure people were safe.

Care plans were reviewed monthly and were person centred and the documents were in place to support people to remain as independent as possible. A lack of staff meant that these were not implemented effectively.

Whilst improvements had been made by the manager, there remained a lack of strong infrastructure to support them to ensure improvements were sustained, built on and fed into continued development plans for the service. Following the inspection the provider reported to us that they were unable to continue running the service due to a lack of staff and because the manager had resigned. They were unable to provide staff until people using the service had been supported to find alternative homes. Therefore the local authority provided staff and oversight to ensure this was done in a safe and planned way. No people currently live in the service.

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