Archived: Skellow Hall

Skellow Hall is a residential care home providing personal care, it can accommodate up to 29 people aged 65 and over. There were nine people using the service at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service had no registered manager and systems and processes used to ensure the service was running safely were not robust or effective.

Risks to people were not always managed and reduced. Accidents and incidents were not analysed.

There were shortfalls in the way medicines were administered and staff were not suitably trained to administer medicines safely.

Records were not accurate and up to date to show what care people had received. Staff were not suitably trained or supervised to be able to effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities.

There were systems in place to safeguard people from abuse. However, a number of safeguarding concerns had been referred to the local authority. There were safe recruitment processes in place which were followed.

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 inadequate (published October 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to care needs not being met and risks not being managed. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not include them in this inspection. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has not changed.

We have found evidence the provider needs to make improvements. We identified continued breaches in regulation.

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 Skellow Hall on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, medicines, person centred care and governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report. Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within six months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it. And it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

Skellow Hall is a residential care home providing personal care to 21 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 29 people.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The environment didn’t meet people’s needs. There was a lack of activities taking place to ensure people were stimulated. People told us there was very little to do and put this down to a shortage of staff.

The service had no registered manager and systems and processes used to ensure the service was running safely were not robust or effective.

Risk to people were not always managed and reduced. Accidents and incidents were not analysed.

There were shortfalls in the way medicines were administered and staff were not suitably trained to administer medicines safely.

We recommended that the provider follows the Mental Capacity Act to ensure decision are made in people best interests.

Records were not accurate and up to date to show what care people had received. Staff were not suitably trained or supervised to be able to effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities.

We recommended that the provider use a tool to show staffing levels are safe and sufficient to meet people’s needs.

There were systems in place to safeguard people from abuse and safe recruitment processes were being followed.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

This service was registered with us on 24/10/2018 and this is the first inspection.

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 11 May 2017). Since this rating was awarded the registered provider of the service has changed. We have used the previous rating and enforcement action taken to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe. effective, caring, responsive 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.

The provider contacted us following the inspection and gave assurances that they would act to address the concerns.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Skellow Hall on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, medicines, environment and governance.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it. And it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.