- Care home
Archived: Hevercourt
Report from 24 February 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 25 February 2025. The service is a residential care home providing support to adults of all ages, some people were living with dementia. We found 5 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding people, staffing, the recruitment of staffing and good governance.
There was poor oversight of the service by the provider to identify and make sustained improvements at the service. Checks and audits completed by the leadership team were ineffective in driving improvements. We found that people had not always been protected from the risk of harm. Staff lacked the knowledge, skills and competency to support people to manage complex health conditions. People at risk of constipation did not always receive the support they needed to manage their health needs. Other risks relating to high blood pressure, choking, fluid intake, and skin breakdown had not been managed well by staff. Staffing levels continued to not be sufficient to support people. People’s medicines were not managed safely, including the storage of medicines. Systems to ensure that accidents, incidents and safeguarding concerns were logged, and action was taken to reduce risks to people were not effective. Staff documentation and oversight of accidents and incidents was not effective.
In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.
People's experience of this service
People experienced poor care and treatment. People who were unable to communicate their needs verbally were left in their rooms without formal checks on their welfare. One person was not able to express their needs and had not opened their bowels for 6 days. Staff management of this was poor and ineffective, and placed the person at increased risk of harm. When people could become distressed, there was not sufficient and robust guidance to inform staff how best to support the person.
The environment continued not to meet the needs of people living with dementia. People who could become disorientated to time and place had nothing to support them to orientate themselves around the service, or to their bedroom. Parts of the service, including people’s bedrooms were tired and in need of improvement.