Acacia Lodge Care Home

Acacia Lodge Care Home is a nursing home providing accommodation, nursing and personal care for up to 40 people. The service provides support to older people, some of whom may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 25 people using the service.

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

There was a lack of effective monitoring in place and this had resulted in poor outcomes for people using the service. There was a lack of management and leadership within the home.

The provider did not always ensure there was staff deployed who were knowledgeable about people and the home to meet people's needs. Staff had not had all the required training to meet people’s needs, for example training to meet people’s needs who were living with dementia. High numbers of agency care and nursing staff were deployed, who were not always familiar with the people they were caring for and the health and safety procedures of the home. The provider placed both staff and people at risk.

People experienced task led care which resulted in their dignity not being promoted or protected. People were not always supported to maintain their independence and have the opportunity to take part in activities and access the local community.

People were not 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's communication needs were recorded, and staff understood people's preferred communication. There was some evidence that people had been involved in making decisions about their care. However, people also told us they felt isolated and did not have the opportunity to be involved in activities in the home or local community.

Medicines were well managed. The home was clean and tidy, and measures had been taken to reduce the risk of the spread of Covid-19. Learning from accidents and incidents took place to prevent recurrence.

Systems in place helped safeguard people from the risk of abuse. Assessments of risk and safety and supporting measures in place helped minimize risks. people accessed other health care professionals as and when required.

The provider was open and transparent and developed an action plan to mitigate the concerns found on the inspection.

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 the service under the previous provider was requires improvement (published on 8 January 2021). We also undertook an infection prevention control inspection (published 21 January 2022)

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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 is requires improvement.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection under the previous provider, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Acacia Lodge Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, person-centred care and governance and leadership at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.