Archived: Regent House

Updated 5 October 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection, we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 1 medicine inspector.

Service and service type

Regent House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Regent House is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 7 people who used the service and 1 relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 9 members of staff including managers, senior support workers and support workers and 5 stakeholders. We spoke with 6 professionals who were involved in the support for people and visited the service. We reviewed a range of records. This included five people's care records and numerous medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were also reviewed.

Updated 5 October 2023

About the service

Regent House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up 23 people with mental health needs. At the time of the inspection 7 people needed support with personal care.

Regent House is made of 3 floors, on the ground floor you will find living spaces such as two lounges, kitchen, dining room and office, with a courtyard garden. Bedrooms and bathrooms can be found on the first and second floor.

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

People were put at risk of harm due to the lack of safeguarding processes and effective systems in place to implement improvements where risks had been identified.

Care plans and risk assessments did not always correlate and identify fundamental information to ensure people were supported in a safe way.

People did not always receive their medicines in line with the prescribers’ instructions. There was a lack of staff trained to administer medicines, which had an impact on delivery of care.

People did not always get the dedicated support when needed. This meant people were not always provided with safe support and were unable to experience new things or meet their aspirations.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.

People did not receive support that was person-centred and gave them autonomy in their life. Support did not focus on people's quality of life or follow best practice.

Staff told us and records confirmed staff did not have adequate training which meant there was not enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people's needs.

The management team did not always offer the support and leadership required for the staff. Staff felt there was a lack of communication between staff and management.

The management team did not have robust governance system in place, some spot checks were in place, however, these were not effective and did not identify the issues we found.

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 good (published July 2017)

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to safe care and treatment of people and ensuring there was enough skilled staff to meet people’s care needs. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.

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.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to inadequate based on the findings of this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well led sections of this full report. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, lack of person-centred care, inadequately skilled staff, poor environment and lack of governance systems and management oversight.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added at the bottom of the report.

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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

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.