6 January 2016
During an inspection looking at part of the service
The registered manager sent us an action plan detailing actions anticipated to ensure future compliance with the regulations. We undertook a focused inspection on 06 and 07 January 2016 to check that they were meeting the legal requirements which the warning notices related to. This report only covers our findings in relation to these breaches of regulations. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for ‘The Orchard’ on our website at www.cqc.org.uk. We will follow up on the other breaches referred to in that report at a later stage.
The Orchard is a care home for older adults. It is registered to provide accommodation for 11 people. At the time of our inspection eight people lived at The Orchard. The Orchard is a family owned and run care home. It has a family home atmosphere and rooms are personalised.
The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
At this focused inspection on 06 and 07 January 2016, we found that some improvements had been made to rectify issues identified at the previous inspection. However, we found a number of issues still of concern.
Medicine administration did not follow national guidelines. One person was not offered prescribed medicine for 11 days.
Staff had been offered training but failed to demonstrate that they had knowledge of this learning. We observed poor manual handling practice and disregard for respecting dignity.
The provider had responded to improvements required in fire safety. Door releases were now in place allowing doors to shut when the fire alarm was activated.
We found the provider had taken steps to improve its monitoring of the quality of the service provided. Questionnaires had been sent out to people, relatives and staff.
Staffing numbers had increased since our last visit. This meant that people’s safety at lunchtime had improved.
At the last comprehensive inspection this provider was placed into special measures by CQC. This inspection found that there was not enough improvement to take the provider out of special measures. We found a number of continued breaches in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. CQC is now considering the appropriate regulatory response to resolve the problems we found.
We have made a recommendation about staff training on the subject of Safeguarding people from abuse.