Archived: Ashdale Care Home

Updated 6 January 2024

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

This was a targeted inspection to check whether the provider had made improvements since the last inspection.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by 2 inspectors.

Service and service type

Ashdale Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Ashdale Care Home is a care home with nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was no registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This is because there were no people living at the care home and we needed to be sure someone was present to support the inspection process.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

Since the last inspection, the provider has sent us an action plan. This describes what action the provider intends to make and by when. We reviewed this action plan before attending the service.

During the inspection

During the inspection, there were no people living at Ashdale Care Home. We therefore did not speak to residents or relatives about the support they received.

The provider had enlisted the support of an external support group to make the required improvements to the care home. We spoke to 2 staff members from this group. We also spoke to staff from Ashdale Care Home, including: a director, a staff member and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed governance documentation that had been completed since the last inspection. This documentation can demonstrate what action the management team have done to make the required improvements to the service. We were not assured that the management of the care home was effective to make the required improvements.

Updated 6 January 2024

About the service

Ashdale Care Home is a residential care home providing the regulated activities of personal and nursing care to up to 22 people. The service provides support to people aged 65 and over and adults with physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were 16 people using the service. Accommodation is provided over 2 floors. A communal lounge with a dining room is based on the ground floor.

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

Records relating to people's care did not always contain information and guidance to enable staff to provide the safe care and support people required. Risk management was not in place for some people who were at a high risk of choking, falls and needed to use bedrails to keep them safe.

People were not supported by staff who had been appropriately trained and assessed as being competent to deliver safe care and treatment to people. People were left at risk of being supported by staff without the skills and knowledge to support their identified needs. People had not received their medicines in a safe way and as prescribed by their GP.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible or in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.

The service was not well-led. There was no effective governance system in place to monitor the quality of the service provided to people. The provider continued to fail to recognise risks and concerns in relation to risk management, safeguarding, and medicine management. Lessons were not being learnt or action taken by the provider when additional support was provided to them by the local authority in-between inspection visits.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 4 November 2022). The service is now rated inadequate. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last 2 consecutive inspections. 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 not been made and further risk was found.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted by information shared by stakeholders. We received concerns in relation to the management of medicines, people’s nursing care needs, staffing, poor care planning and risk assessing. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to inadequate based on the findings of this inspection

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 Ashdale Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care, consent to care and governance at this inspection.

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

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.