Handford House Care Home

Updated 23 July 2024

Handford House Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal and nursing care to up to 52 adults who may be living with dementia and/or have a physical disability. At the time of our assessment there were 49 people using the service, over 2 floors. The service is a purpose built home and has an additional floor where people were not accommodated. This was used, for the laundry area and as an area for staff training. As part of our assessment, we undertook site visits on 22, 26 and 29 July 2024. The assessment was prompted in part by concerns we had received about end-of-life care, staffing levels, how staff followed hygiene protocols, the quality of care provided to people and their safety. Where we had received concerns, we reported safeguarding concerns to the local authority safeguarding team and sought assurance from the registered manager and provider. We identified 5 breaches of the legal regulations relating to person-centred care, safe care and treatment, need for consent, good governance, and staffing. We have told the provider they need to make improvements. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

Updated 23 July 2024

During our assessment we spoke with 7 people who used the service and received electronic and telephone feedback from 22 relatives. We also observed the interactions between staff and people who used the service. We received some mixed feedback about people’s experiences living at Handford House. We found people did not always experience person-centred care and there was a lack of meaningful engagement and interaction. Some relatives felt their family members were happy living in the service, however, several identified concerns which were common across the feedback received, such as activities, personal care, laundry and raising concerns but not always seeing improvements. Relatives told us they could visit their family members with no restrictions.