Archived: Whiteladies Residential Home

Updated 24 August 2017

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 provider was 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.

We undertook a comprehensive inspection of Whiteladies on 28 and 29 June 2017. This involved inspecting the service against all five of the questions we ask about services: is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

The inspection was unannounced. This meant the staff and the provider did not know we would be visiting. The inspection was carried out by two inspectors on 28 June 2017 and one inspector on 29 June 2017.

Before carrying out the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the home. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We also looked at the notifications we had received. Notifications are information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law.

During our inspection we spoke with eleven people who lived at the home, three relatives and a visiting entertainer.

We observed the way staff interacted and engaged with people. We spoke with the registered person, and eight staff including care staff, catering, activities and housekeeping staff. We observed how equipment, such as call bells, pressure relieving equipment and bed rails were used in the home. We observed medicines being given to people.

We looked at six peoples’ care records. We looked at medicine records, staff recruitment files, staff training records, audits and action plans, and other records relating to the monitoring and management of the care home. Following the inspection, the registered person sent us further information that we had requested.

Updated 24 August 2017

We carried out a comprehensive inspection on 28 and 29 June 2017. The inspection was unannounced. Whiteladies Residential Home provides accommodation for up to 25 people who need personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 21 people living in the home.

There was a registered manager in place 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.

People were not safe. Risk assessments and risk management plans did not identify and mitigate risks to people’s safety. These included risks associated with the unsafe use of equipment and risk due to lack of operational systems to check the safety of fire, water and electrical provision. People’s medicines were not safely managed. People did not receive their medicines safely and people’s medicines were not stored safely.

Quality monitoring systems were not in place to identify, monitor, manage and mitigate risks to people’s safety and welfare.

Staff that had received training with regard to safeguarding people from harm and abuse. However, they had not always fulfilled their responsibilities and people’s concerns were not always recorded or reported.

Consent to care was not always sought in line with legal requirements and there was insufficient detail of best interest decisions made on behalf of people.

We have made a recommendation for the provider to review the staffing levels in the home. We also made a recommendation for the provider to introduce a nationally recognised tool to identify people at risk of malnutrition.

Staff had access to, and obtained support and guidance from, external health care professionals.

Staff demonstrated a kind and caring approach when they were supporting people who used the service. When staff spoke with each other, they did not always refer to people in a respectful or dignified way. Staff knew people well. However, people’s likes, dislikes, choices and preferences were not always recorded.

There were activities that people could participate in and people were enjoying group activities on the days of our visit.

People and relatives told us the registered manager was readily accessible and available to them. Staff told us they were well-supported and described the home as a good place to work.

Following this comprehensive inspection, the overall rating for this provider is ‘Inadequate’. This means it has been placed in ‘special measures’. The purpose of special measures is to:

• Ensure that providers found to be providing inadequate care significantly improve.

• Provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and work with, or signpost to, other organisations in the system to ensure improvements are made.

Full information about CQC's regulatory response to these concerns will be added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

During this visit, we found a number of breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.