24 February 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Haythorne Place is a nursing and residential service, providing personal and nursing care for up to 120 people, some of whom were living with mental health conditions or dementia. The service comprised of six houses and one management building.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People told us they felt safe living at the service and the standard of care they received was quite good. However, aspects of the service were not safe. Staffing arrangements negatively impacted the quality of support people received, and in some cases, placed people at risk. Although processes had been established to protect people from risks relating to the spread of infection, these processes were not consistently followed by staff. People received their medicines as prescribed.
The systems of governance were comprehensive, but they had not been effective at meeting regulatory requirements or improving the quality of care people received. For example, this was the third consecutive inspection where feedback about staffing was poor. Despite our initial concerns, the new registered manager and provider were very proactive in engaging with CQC after the inspection. The provider took immediate action to address infection prevention control concerns after our visit and confirmed they will take onboard our comments about staffing. The registered manager understood aspects of the service must improve.
Throughout the inspection we saw caring interactions between staff and people who used the service. We have made a recommendation about how the provider embeds a person-centred culture at the service.
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 8 October 2019).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to staffing and the culture of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, caring and well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
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 has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
Enforcement
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 to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to staffing, infection prevention and control and 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 request an action plan for 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.