CQC inspectors made an unannounced visit to Blackwater Mill Residential Home in November 2015 and have now issued their findings.
Overall, the CQC found the care home to ‘Require Improvement’, although it did score well in providing an effective and caring service.
The inspectors rated the care home in the following five areas of care:
Is the service safe? Requires improvement
Is the service effective? Good
Is the service caring? Good
Is the service responsive? Requires improvement
Is the service well-led? Requires improvement
Not enough staff
The report states the failure to ensure sufficient staff were deployed to meet people’s needs was a breach of Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.
The CQC therefore issued a warning notice to meet the regulations by 15th February.
Highlights
Highlights from the report include:
- People and their relatives had mixed views about the availability of staff.
- Whilst some felt they were adequate, others felt there were not enough staff to ensure people received baths or showers regularly.
- Staff confirmed that baths and showers were sometimes missed when they were short-staffed and this was confirmed by the care records.
- Night staff told us that they were not able to support everyone who wanted to get up between 6:00 am and 7:30 am as there were not enough of them.
- Staff were responsive to changes in people’s needs and records showed people received all essential care.
- People felt safe at Blackwater Mill.
- People praised the quality of the food. They received appropriate support to eat and drink enough and, in all but one case, action was taken if they started to lose weight.
- People received effective care from staff who were suitably trained and supported in their role
- People were cared for with kindness and compassion and we observed positive interactions between people and staff.
- An additional activity coordinator had been recruited and a range of appropriate activities was provided. Two activity clubs had been formed which had proved popular with people.
People entitled to high quality care
Deborah Ivanova, CQC’s Interim Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care (South), said:
“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care. We assess services against five key questions – Is the service caring? Is the service effective? Is the service safe? Is the service well led? Is the service responsive? – and rate each question and the service overall. Where we find a service meets our characteristics of good or outstanding then we will rate accordingly.
“If we find that a service requires improvement, we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue. We will share our findings with local commissioners, and we will return in due course to check that they have made the required improvements.
“Whenever we find a service to be Inadequate, we will consider taking further action on behalf of the people who use the service. Providers of those services should take the publication of the inadequate rating as a signal that immediate action is required to improve the service.”
The report
Full details can be found in the report below. Click on the full screen icon to see larger version.
Image: jasleen_kaur under CC BY 2.0
