The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Woodlands Care Home in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, that it must make improvements or face further enforcement action.
During an unannounced inspection in November 2014, inspectors found that the home was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led. Inspectors also found that failings identified on a previous inspection in May 2014 had not been addressed by the provider, Speciality Care (REIT Homes) Limited.
A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-124770874.
Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall, Woodlands Care Home has been rated as Inadequate.
The report identifies a number of areas in which improvements are required:
- There were not always enough staff to meet people’s individual needs.
- Inspectors found that people living in the home were not kept safe due to poor medicines management.
- Although staff had received training in Safeguarding, in practice, inspectors found that there was a lack of staff knowledge on how to identify or respond to the risk of abuse.
- Meals were not always nutritionally balanced and there was limited choice for people living at the home as to what they could have to eat.
- Some staff expressed concerns about the quality of the training they had received.
- People were not fully protected from the risk of infection because some parts of the home were dirty and unhygienic.
- People living at the home and their relatives did not have access to information about how to make a complaint and complaints were not always recorded or responded to appropriately.
- There were inconsistencies in how care was delivered throughout the home. On one unit of the home, inspectors found that overall people received the care they needed, but that this was not the case on the other three units.
- People’s privacy was not always respected, and restrictions were placed on people which did not take into account individual capacity.
- The provider did not have an effective system in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.
As a result of these findings CQC is currently considering the need for further regulatory action and will report in due course on any action they do decide to take.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North said:
“We have told Speciality Care (REIT Homes) Limited that they must take action to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people who live there.
“The provider is failing to meet the basic needs and individual choices of the people living at Woodlands Care Home and this is unacceptable.
“The people living at the home are entitled to receive a service which is safe, effective, caring, well led, and responsive to their needs. The provider should have systems in place to monitor the quality of the service so that standards do not fall to this extent.
“Since the inspection, we have been working closely with Kirklees Council to ensure that people’s needs are being met properly and we have told the provider where improvements must be made.
“We will return to inspect the home to check that the provider has made all the changes required to ensure people are safe and well cared for. If we find that this is not the case we will consider using our legal powers further to protect the people who live here.”
Ends
For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Officer Mark Humphreys on 0191 233 3519. Alternatively, the CQC press office can be contacted on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07789 876508.
Find out more
Read reports from our checks on the standards at Woodlands Care Home.