Asmall Hall Care Home, Lancashire rated Inadequate by the Care Quality Commission

Published: 4 July 2016 Page last updated: 12 May 2022
Categories
Media

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has put Asmall Hall Care Home, Ormskirk, Lancashire into special measures to protect people using the service, after rating the service as Inadequate after an inspection in April this year.

The service provides accommodation for up to 56 people, who require help with personal or nursing care needs. There is also a small unit for people who are living with dementia.

The inspection took place on 27 April 2016 and was unannounced.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are given a rating to help people choose care. We ask five questions, are services; safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Overall, Asmall Hall Care Home has been rated as Inadequate.

The full report from the inspection can be found here on our website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-118899188

Asmall Hall Care Home was previously inspected in March 2015 where we found several breaches of the of the Health and Social Care Act (2008) Regulated Activities Regulations.

The report identified a number of other areas which we found concerning including:

  • We found that whilst some improvements had been made since our last inspection, not all actions identified on the action plan submitted by the provider had been completed.
  • People's medicines were not stored and administered safely.
  • Safeguarding procedures were in place and provided staff with guidance about reporting any potential or suspected abuse of people who used the service. However, we found that some reports of suspected abuse had not been dealt with adequately.
  • We observed poor infection control practice within the home; staff failed to remove protective clothing at point of care. The home was generally unclean throughout.

We found that although staff displayed a good understanding about how to treat people with privacy, dignity and respect, this was not being put into practice during their interactions with people who lived at Asmall Hall. Care files contained informative life histories and were person centred, however these were not used to inform care planning.

Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:

“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.

“We found the care provided at Asmall Hall Care Home to fall short of what we expect services to provide. This is why we have intervened to keep people using this service safe. Our first instinct is to make sure the service improves, but we must also take action to protect people when we are worried about their safety.”

If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains 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 the service.

Ends

For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here. Please note: the press office is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters.

For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.

Find out more

Read reports from our checks on the standards at Asmall Hall Care Home

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.