Archived: Benamy Care

Updated 19 October 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the registered provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 13 September 2016 and was unannounced. We arrived at 8:45am and left at 10:15am, the registered providers having obstructed the inspection and refusing to engage in the inspection process.

The inspection team consisted of one adult social care inspector and one Specialist Advisor. A Specialist Advisor is someone who has professional experience of this type of care service, in this case learning disabilities.

We spoke with the registered providers and the registered manager (who was one of the registered providers). We briefly spoke with all five people who used the service and the handyman. During the inspection visit we looked at two people’s care plans, a staff supervision file, a quality assurance file and a file of surveys.

Before our inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service, including previous inspection reports, enforcement action and previous action plans. We liaised with the local authority and they updated us on meetings they had held with the registered provider. Commissioning and safeguarding professionals at the local authority expressed ongoing concerns about the ability of the registered providers to sustain the service.

Updated 19 October 2016

This inspection took place on 13 September 2016 and was unannounced. This meant the staff or registered provider did not know we would be coming.

The service was last inspected on 12 February 2016 at which time we found the registered provider had failed to implement the majority of an action plan they told us was intended to address a range of breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, identified in a previous inspection of 19 and 20 August 2015. These breaches of legislation were:

• Regulation 9 – Person-centred care

• Regulation 11 – Consent

• Regulation 12 – Safe care and treatment

• Regulation 17 – Good governance

• Regulation 18 - Staffing

We took enforcement action following the inspection of 19 and 20 August 2015 and the service was put into ‘Special Measures’. This meant the service was kept under review and a return inspection planned within six months, with the expectation that significant improvements should have been made within this timeframe. At the inspection of 12 February 2016 we found the registered provider had failed to make any significant improvements and remained in breach of these regulations. The service therefore remained in ‘Special Measures.’

On this inspection of 13 September 2016 the inspection team were unable to undertake a full inspection of the service due to the obstruction of the registered providers and the registered manager (who is also one of the registered providers). The registered providers confirmed they had made no changes or improvements since the last inspection and did not intend to do so.

The obstruction of an inspection is a criminal offence under Section 63 (7) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. CQC has considered the appropriate regulatory response to this obstructed inspection and has shared information regarding the conduct of the registered providers with local authority commissioning professionals.

The service therefore remains in Special Measures.

Benamy Care is a small residential care home in Seaham providing accommodation and personal care for up to five adults with learning disabilities. There were five people using the service when we attempted to inspect the service.

The home had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Of the documentation we saw, as per the comments by the registered providers, we saw care files had not been reviewed since the last inspection and there was no evidence of quality assurance work being undertaken.

The registered providers confirmed they had put in place no action plan since the last inspection. The registered providers obstructed the inspection by way of refusing to answer further questions and requesting that we leave the premises and we were unable to complete a comprehensive inspection of the service at this time.

During our inspection we found no evidence to indicate that the previous breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Regulated Activities Regulations 2014 (as identified in previous inspections) had been addressed, or that any improvements had been made.