The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has put Windsor Care Home, Hebburn into special measures to protect people using this service, after rating them as Inadequate following inspections in May and June this year.
Windsor Care Home is a residential and nursing home that provides care to older persons and people who may be living with a dementia. It can accommodate up to 73 people. At the time of our inspection 63 people were living at the home.
CQC inspected Windsor Care Home over three days in May and June this year. All aspects of the inspection were unannounced. This meant that staff and the provider did not know that CQC would be visiting.
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, Windsor Care Home has been rated as Inadequate.
The full report from the inspection can be found here.
During the inspection CQC inspectors found that the service had breached a number of regulations. People did not receive care and support in line with assessments to ensure that associated risks were managed and care was delivered safely.
People were not protected against the risks associated with infection due to Windsor Care Home failing to adopt and implement appropriate infection prevention and control measures. People's hydration and nutritional needs were not being managed in a way that was safe and promoted their health and wellbeing.
Inspectors found that the service failed to deploy enough staff across the home in order to safely meet the needs of people who used the service.
Staff that were employed had not been subject to robust recruitment processes and checks nor had they completed the right training to enable them to carry out their roles effectively.
The service failed to protect people from abuse, or allegations of abuse. This was because there was not a sufficiently robust system in place to ensure that relevant authorities were made aware of allegations of abuse. This also meant that there were insufficient systems in place to prevent further abuse or allegations occurring.
The report identified a number of other areas which CQC found deeply concerning including:
- Staff did not understand or act in accordance with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).
- Medicine administration was not always carried out safely.
- The service did not promote a culture that was open, inclusive and empowering. There was a lack of confidence from people, those acting on their behalf and staff, in the process of raising concerns and issues with the service. The process that was in place to monitor the on-going quality of the service was ineffective.
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 that the care provided at Windsor Care Home fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide, which 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 not hesitate to take further enforcement action.
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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.
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