Blake Court Limited

Updated 12 October 2022

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.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector, one inspection manager and one Expert by Experience who made telephone calls to people and relatives of people using the service. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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. At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. The assistant manager, referred to as the manager within this report, had responsibility for the management of the service whilst the recruitment of a registered manager was being undertaken.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 27 June 2022 and ended on 29 June 2022. We visited the location’s office on 27 June 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service and formal notifications that the service had sent to CQC. Notifications are information that registered persons are required to tell us about by law that may affect people's health and wellbeing. 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 two people who used the service and six people’s relatives. We spoke with six members of staff including the assistant manager, a senior manager and four support staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people's care records and three people's medicines records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures and audits. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service.

Updated 12 October 2022

About the service

Blake Court Limited provides personal care to older people living within an extra care setting. People using the service lived within flats as part of a gated community in North London. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting eight people with the regulated activity of personal care.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People and their relatives told us they felt safe with the care and support they or their relative received. However, despite positive feedback we found issues with the management of people risks, management of medicines and management oversight which placed people at increased risk of harm.

The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service, however they did not identify the issues we found during the inspection. We found the service had not addressed concerns found at the previous inspection.

We made a recommendation around staff recruitment.

People were kept safe from the risk of infection and COVID-19.

People were supported by kind and caring staff who understood their responsibility to report any concerns.

Staff told us the management team was supportive and they could raise any concerns. People and their relatives told us they were satisfied with the service provided.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 6 May 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found the provider remained in breach of regulations. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 16 March 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment, staff recruitment and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

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 remained the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Blake Court Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

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 and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this 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.