Archived: Blacklake Lodge Residential Home

Updated 14 July 2020

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and one assistant inspector.

Service and service type

Blacklake Lodge residential Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager but they were not registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means the provider alone is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

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 all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine members of staff including the manager, deputy manager, cleaning and care staff, the activities co-ordinator and one of the directors.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and multiple 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 reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We requested evidence of moving and handling equipment servicing, portable appliance testing and legionella testing.

We spoke with the directors of the service, one of whom was the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Updated 14 July 2020

About the service

Blacklake Lodge Residential Home is a residential care home which provides accommodation and personal care to a maximum of 37 older people. On the day of our inspection, 23 people were living at the home, most of whom were living with dementia.

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

Environmental risks were not managed safely and the provider had failed to protect people against the risk of scalding. People had been placed at risk of harm because staff did not follow good infection control practices.

People’s medicines were not always safely managed by staff, resulting in some medicines not being stored at the correct temperatures. People’s medicines were not always monitored so staff did not know how effective they were. The staffing arrangements at night were not always maintained at a safe level, which put people at risk of not having their needs safely met.

Following our previous inspection, we had imposed conditions which the provider had not fully complied with and they had not informed us of staffing issues at night. The provider had not driven improvement in the quality and safety of the service, which had put people at risk of harm.

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 inadequate (published 31 December 2019).

At this inspection improvement had not been made and the provider was still in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We had previously carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 25 October 2019. Breaches of legal requirements were found and we imposed conditions on the provider’s registration.

This inspection was prompted in part due to the provider not having suitable insurance for the home. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led and to look at any improvement the provider had made since our previous inspection.

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

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 discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required 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 people’s safety, medicines, staffing, leadership and governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have taken at the end of this report.