About the service: Alexandra Court Care Centre is a residential care home that can provide personal and nursing care to a maximum of 72 people. There were 61 people using the service at the time of the inspection, some of whom were living with dementia. People’s experience of using this service: The provider took over the running of the service in February 2019. Until very recently there had been insufficient staff on duty; the new provider had used a care staffing tool which was not sufficiently accurate when calculating people’s complex health care needs. Staffing levels had been reduced and this had impacted on the delivery of care to some people and affected their health and welfare.
For example, people had not always received their medicines as prescribed, which affected their treatment. Risk had not always been managed to ensure people’s safety. This had impacted on their safe care, health and wellbeing. In one instance a person’s pain and distress had not been well-managed and another person had not been provided with the correct pressure relieving cushion.
People had not always had their needs met in ways they preferred, and in a timely way; this had resulted in one person being admitted to hospital for treatment that could have been provided in the service. The reduction in staffing numbers also impacted on the way the service was managed and the time available for the new registered manager to have oversight of the care of people with nursing needs.
There was a delay in the introduction of the new provider's own quality monitoring system. There was also a crossover regarding documentation, which left a newly registered manager and staff team managing different systems of recording. Records were not consistently accurate and up to date. The initial transition from previous provider to new provider could have been managed much more effectively. The provider’s audit system will need time to be fully carried out.
Complaints had been received about the levels of personal care and health care and treatment delivered to people; these had resulted in safeguarding investigations. Some of these were still being investigated by the local safeguarding team. In discussions, staff knew the different types of abuse and knew to report concerns to management.
There were positive comments about the care staff approach but there were also comments from relatives that this could be improved to be more caring and sensitive. Staff had not consistently gained consent before carrying out tasks such as placing clothes protectors on people. However, people were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives were possible and staff supported them in the least restrictive way; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People’s nutritional needs were met and menus provided them with choices for the main meals. Those people on textured meals such as pureed, due to swallowing difficulties, had limited choices for desserts.
Staff received training and supervision. There were gaps in training records when staff required courses or updates in training. However, these had been identified by the registered manager. A supervision and appraisal system had just been started following the new provider’s way of working. The provider had a safe system of staff recruitment.
Following the inspection, the registered manager and senior management had reflected on the concerns raised by relatives, the local authority contract monitoring team and the inspection findings. They told us they will produce an action plan and lessons learned document to share with staff and improve practice going forward.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection: This was the first inspection of the service since the new provider was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February 2019.
Why we inspected: We received information from the local authority regarding an escalation of concerns about the service; they had been completing monitoring visits. We completed this inspection based on these concerns. At the time of the inspection, we were aware of incidents being investigated by another agency.
Enforcement: The service met the characteristics of Inadequate in two key questions of safe and well-led, and Requires Improvement in effective, caring and responsive. There were breaches of regulations in delivering person-centred care, safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance. We have issued four Requirement Notices for these breaches. These can be found at the back of the full report.
Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service closely and discuss any ongoing concerns with the local authority. We have requested specific information about what action the provider is to take to make improvements and regular updates on this action.
The overall rating for this registered provider is 'Inadequate'. This means that it has been placed into 'Special Measures' by CQC. The purpose of special measures is to:
• Ensure that providers found to be providing inadequate care significantly improve.
• Provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and work with, or signpost to, other organisations in the system to ensure improvements are made.
• Provide a clear timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of care they provide or we will seek to take further action, for example cancel their registration.
If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.
This service will continue to be kept under review and, if needed, could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Another inspection will be conducted within six months, and if there is not enough improvement so there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action to prevent the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration.
Full information about CQC's regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded. We will have contact with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure the service improves their rating to at least Good.