Archived: Sunnyside Residential Home

Updated 30 December 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection visit was carried out by one inspector and two medicines management team inspectors.

Service and service type

Sunnyfield Residential Home is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was unannounced. We visited the service on 18 October 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all of this information to plan our inspection. During the inspection we spoke with three people who used the service about their experiences of the care provided. We also spoke with the deputy manager, assistant manager, two support workers and the chef. We reviewed a range of records and looked at people’s care records, a sample of medication records and staff recruitment records.

After the inspection visit

We reviewed records and documentation sent to us following the inspection visit.

Updated 30 December 2021

About the service

Sunnyside Residential Home is a care home providing personal care and specialises in providing care to people living with dementia. The service can support up to 22 people, at the time of inspection they supported 21 people.

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

People's medicines were not consistently managed in a safe way.

There have been consistent failings in previous inspections where robust monitoring systems have not developed. This was a repeat issue found within this inspection with a lack of evidence to show robust checks in place for improving medicines management, improving records, fire risk assessments, managing risks within the environment and checks on quality of care.

Following the inspection, managers have described various actions they have taken to improve their management and oversite of the service to manage safety, medicines and care practices covering personal care, access to fluids and access to call bells when people choose to stay in their rooms.

The recruitment of staff was safe. A range of pre- employment checks were carried out on applicants to assess their fitness and suitability for the role. Although some records needed updating and improving. The deployment of staffing levels needed evidence of regular reviews to enable appropriate oversite to always meet people's needs.

We were assured that Infection prevention and control measures were followed to minimise the risk of the spread of infection, including those related to COVID-19.

People provided positive feedback about the service. They told us they enjoyed living at the service. Staff were very positive and felt supported by the managers and provider.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk. The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 1 august 2019.) You can read the report from our last inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sunnyside Residential Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we inspected

We carried out a direct monitoring assessment with the service on the ninth September 2021. We identified some issues with the lack of oversite of auditing medicines and analysis of accidents and incidents. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. Our report is only based on the findings in those areas at this inspection.

The ratings from the previous inspection for the effective, caring and responsive key questions were not looked at during this visit. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used to calculate the overall rating at this inspection.

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.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to inadequate. This is based on the findings at this inspection

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the 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.

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 monitor the service/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 managing risks and safety, managing medicines and the governance of the service. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full 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..

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.