Stoneyford Care Home

Stoneyford Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 58 people. The service provides support to adults, some of whom were living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 33 people living the service. The home had 2 floors and was divided into separate 3 sections. There was a communal garden to the rear of the home.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People and staff at the home raised concerns about the care and support they were receiving. People told us they did not feel safe at the home as their care was not delivered safely, timely or in line with their wishes.

People described excessive wait times in response to call bells and a lack of support with personal care such as showering and toileting.

There was a shortage of trained staff which had impacted on the care they were able to offer people. Staff stated they had raised this repeatedly with the registered manager, but no action had been taken.

Care plans were not person centred and did not reflect people’s needs. Risk assessments had failed to fully identify or mitigate risk. This meant that staff did not have the required information to support people in a safe manner nor in line with their wishes. Where risks had been identified, such as pressure care, there was no evidence to show people received support in line with the recommendations which meant that people were at increased risk of ongoing harm.

The home had recently undergone some renovations and people and staff were positive about these changes. However, the cleanliness of the home did not meet standards to control and prevent the spread of infections. Domestic staff were employed but they were often asked to support in other areas of the home due to staffing issues.

People and relatives told us they had raised incidents and complaints with the registered manager and the provider, but limited action had been taken and their concerns had not been fully addressed or formally responded to.

Staff told us there was a blame culture within the home which had hindered their ability to raise concerns. Staff described incidents of being ‘shouted at’ and ‘talked down to’ by the provider. Relatives and a professional working with the service supported these comments.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. While staff were knowledgeable about people’s needs they were not able support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests as the systems and care plans in the service did not support this practice.

Staff we spoke with told us the home had changed since the new provider had taken over and this had adversely impacted the care people received. Relatives supported this and commented that communication and updates were lacking and there was a visible absence of management within the home.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 26 September 2020.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing and person centred care planning and delivery. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to inadequate based on the findings of this inspection.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to, staffing, safeguarding people from avoidable harm, safe care and treatment, personalised care, consent to care, complaint handling and governance at this inspection.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.