Archived: Down House Residential Care Home

Updated 8 October 2015

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 a focussed inspection to follow up on information of concern and to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

This inspection took place on 13 August 2015 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by two inspectors. We reviewed information from the manager of the service and the local authority before the inspection. We spoke with the manager, four care staff and one person living in the home. We observed care being provided in communal areas and reviewed records in relation to staffing levels in the home.

Updated 8 October 2015

We carried out a focused inspection on 13 August 2015 following information about a lack of staff on duty in the home. This report only covers our findings in relation to this topic.

We undertook an unannounced comprehensive inspection at Down House on 14, 15, 17 and 26 April 2015 at which breaches of regulation were found. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for ‘Down House Residential Care Home’ on our website at www.cqc.org.uk’.

Down House Residential Care Home is registered to provide accommodation for persons requiring nursing or personal care. Down House is a residential care home for up to 17 people. At the time of our inspection 6 people were living at Down House some of whom have physical disabilities or are living with dementia. The home did not have a registered manager at the time of our inspection. 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.

Whilst there were sufficient staff to provide people’s care and support needs on the day of our inspection, the provider failed to plan staffing levels effectively. There was no systematic approach in place to ensure sufficient numbers of suitably skilled, experienced and trained staff were available to meet people’s individual needs. The manager had been given permission by the provider to engage agency staff at short notice and therefore was able to demonstrate that staffing levels for the weekend and the following week were sufficient to enable people to have their needs met.

We found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.