6 July 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
The Dene Lodge is a residential care home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation to up to 39 people. The home provides support to older people including people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 19 people living at the home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People lived in a home where there was no registered manager in post and there were no effective systems to monitor quality or drive improvements. Records had not been updated to make sure they fully reflected people’s needs. This placed people at risk of receiving inconsistent or inappropriate care.
There was a task centred approach and culture within the home. This meant that people did not always receive person-centred care which promoted their well-being and independence.
People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support best practice.
People were helped with personal tasks by kind and patient staff. However, there was very limited social interaction for people when staff were not helping them with physical care. New staff had not received training or guidance on how to promote well-being for people living with dementia. This all resulted in people not receiving social stimulation. We have recommended that staff receive training in supporting people living with dementia.
People felt safe with staff who supported them and looked relaxed when staff helped them. Staff said they were confident that any concerns raised would be fully investigated to make sure people were protected.
People lived in a home which was well maintained and provided a pleasant environment. Several people commented how much they enjoyed spending time in the garden.
People were happy with the food provided although improvements were needed to meals served to people who required a specialist diet.
Staff worked well with other professionals to make sure people’s medical needs were monitored and met. People said that staff arranged for them to see a doctor or nurse if they were unwell.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 2 August 2021) and there was a breach of regulations. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
At this inspection we found improvements had been made in infection prevention and control practices and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation 12. However other breaches were identified at this inspection.
At our last inspection we recommended that the provider ensured that all staff were familiar with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the practicalities of making decisions in respect of a person who lacks capacity to consent to their medicines being administered. At this inspection we found that although staff had received training in the mental capacity act no learning from this had been put into practice.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
We carried out an unannounced focussed inspection of this service on 7 July 2021. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of Safe, Effective and Well-led.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has not changed from Requires Improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe, Effective and Well led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Dene Lodge – Minehead on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.