A report has been published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating The Woodlands Care Home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire as “Inadequate” following a routine unannounced inspection in April 2016.
The Woodlands Care Home Report
The Woodlands Care Home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 40 older people and is run by Carisbrooke Healthcare Ltd. The home provides care for residents with dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments.
The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection of the home to check whether it was meeting the legal requirements and regulations and to look at the overall quality of the service.
The CQC inspection asked five questions of the service:
- Is the service safe?
- Is the service effective?
- Is the service caring?
- Is the service responsive?
- Is the service well-lead?
The Woodlands Care Home was rated as “Inadequate” or “Requires Improvement” on all five questions and the final report highlights significant failings of the home.
At the time of the CQC’s inspection, the home had a Registered Manager in place whose role entails a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 about how the service is run.
However, the CQC inspection found that the Registered Manager of The Woodlands Care Home had not ensured that all staff working at the home had received the appropriate safeguarding training. It was also found that the Registered Manager at the home had not followed safe practices when recruiting staff.
Further conclusions of the inspection report included:
- Residents were not always protected from the risk of abuse;
- Some staff had started work without going through the Disclosure and Barring Service checks and some lacked appropriate references;
- Staffing levels were insufficient;
- Staff did not always receive appropriate training and supervision;
- Management of medicines was not always safe;
- Principles of the Mental Capacity Act were not always followed as people had been deprived of their liberty without the required authorisation;
- People were not always protected from the risks of inadequate nutrition;
- Referrals to health care professionals were not always undertaken;
- Care records did not give adequate information required for individualised care;
- Issues raised by relatives were not always responded to and acted up on;
- Records were not always maintained and completed in full.
- Care records did not give adequate information required for individualised care.
Overall, The Woodlands Care Home was found by the CQC inspectors to be unsafe and not effective which had resulted in poor outcomes for the people living at the home. This resulted in the CQC finding multiple breaches of regulations.
It was found that Regulations under the Health and Social Care Act were not being met in several areas and that there was, in particular:
- Lack of person centred care records
- Lack of up to date risk assessments
- Lack of training for staff on safeguarding
- Lack of robust recruitment processes
- Lack of monitoring of diets and weights
- Lack of staff training and support
- Poor staff levels.
As a result of the findings, the CQC has asked The Woodlands Care Home to send them a report detailing what action the home is going to take. The CQC will check that this action is taken by the home and will then consider whether further action is required.
The critical report sheds light on the significant failings of the home. Not only is the care likely to have caused distress to the residents, it would appear that some have been put at risk of serious harm.
It is now vital that the home acts quickly to take the action required and ensure that residents are safe and well cared for by appropriately trained staff.
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