15 November 2023
During an inspection looking at part of 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 no people living at the care home.
What we found
There were no people living at Ashdale Care Home. We were therefore not able to ask for people’s experiences of care provided.
The provider did not have suitable equipment to support people who were at risk of falling out of bed.
There were environmental risks. The provider had not completed routine water maintenance. This means there is an increased risk from legionella bacteria, which can cause serious ill health. The fire alarm system had a fault, this had not been investigated or resolved. The care home’s heating system was not effective, so the home was cold.
The provider could not provide a list of staff names, their training or full recruitment details. This meant we were not assured that there would be suitable staff to care for people safely.
People using the care home could be at risk of choking. Only one staff member had received relevant training on how to support people’s swallowing needs, there was a lack of guidance in the kitchen for staff to follow.
There was no clear action plan for the provider to make the required improvements. New policies that had been put in place, were not clear.
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 inadequate (published 13 November 2023)
This service has been in Special Measures since the last inspection report. During this inspection, the provider did not demonstrate that improvements have been made. Therefore, this service remains in Special Measures.
Why we inspected
We undertook a targeted inspection to check whether the concerns seen at the previous inspection had been resolved. Targeted inspections do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.
The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains rated inadequate
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.
Enforcement
The previous inspection identified 3 breaches of regulation. As there were no people living at Ashdale Care Home, we were not able to assess the effectiveness of any action taken since the last inspection. Therefore the 3 breaches of regulation remain in place.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from 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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
Special Measures
At the last inspection, the service was rated inadequate and therefore entered ‘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.