21 March 2019
During a routine inspection
The Homestead (Crowthorne) Limited is a care home which provides personal care and support for up to 23 older people living with dementia.
The registered manager of the home had left the service at the beginning of 2019, however was still registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A new manager was appointed but left on 18 March 2019 just before our inspection. We were assisted by the Nominated Individual (NI) for the service, who is also the registered provider of the service. The registered manager and registered provider are ‘Registered Persons’. Registered Persons have a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People’s experience of using this service:
¿People did not receive a service that provided them with safe, effective and high-quality care.
¿Risks to people's safety and well-being were not managed effectively and this placed people at risk of harm.
¿Infection control was not always managed in an effective way.
¿Incidents and accidents were not managed safely to prevent a reoccurrence.
¿People's needs and preferences were not always assessed or person-centred plans developed to guide staff on how to meet people's needs.
¿Staff did not always complete training in meeting people's needs and this meant people were at risk of inappropriate care and treatment.
¿People were not always treated respectfully or in a way that promoted their privacy and dignity.
¿Staff were not always deployed effectively.
¿The service was not well-led and the governance system was not effective and did not identify the risks to the health, safety and well-being of people or drive continuous improvements.
¿Complaints had not always been managed appropriately.
¿Appropriate referrals were not made to the local authority in a timely way.
¿We were not always notified, as required by law, of notifiable safety incidents.
¿Medicines management was not always safe.
¿People and their relatives told us staff were caring.
There is more information about this in the full report.
Rating at last inspection:
Good (Published on 19 July 2018).
Why we inspected:
This was a responsive inspection due to information we received of risk and concern regarding the safety and welfare of people living in the home.
Enforcement:
We have told the provider to take immediate action to address some of the concerns we found. 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. Services in special measures will be kept under review and, if we have not taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider's registration of the service, will be inspected again within six months.
The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe. If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve. This service will continue to be kept under review and, if needed, could be escalated to urgent enforcement action.
Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement so there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action to prevent the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their 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.