Archived: Hillgreen Care Ltd - 53 Myddleton Road

This report is a follow up to our reports published in July 2013 and February 2014. We inspected this service on 13 June 2013 and 31 December 2013, when we noted some issues which had a moderate impact on people using the service. These related to staffing and to supporting care workers. The provider had not ensured that there were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people's needs. Staff did not receive appropriate support and did not have a chance to develop and improve their skills. During our inspection in December 2013 we found that the provider had made some improvements however, these were insufficient to meet the requirements of the regulations fully.

We issued two warning notices requiring the provider to take steps to comply with Regulations 22 and 23 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.

We carried out an inspection on 18 April 2014 to check whether actions had been taken to become compliant with the Warning Notices. We found that the provider had failed to provide adequate staff to support the people who used the service; we noted that there had been a decrease in staff numbers since our previous inspection.

We carried out a further inspection on the 25th February 2015. This inspection was planned to look at one of the five questions we always ask; is the service safe? and to see if there had been any improvement in relation to staffing since we began our enforcement action in August 2014.

We saw that there had been an improvement in staffing levels and the service was no longer in breach of Regulation 22 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.

The Registered Managers whose names appear in this report were no longer in post at the time of the inspection. Their names appear because they were still Registered Managers on our register. However, a new manager has now been appointed to the service, at the time of the inspection they had applied but were not yet registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the regulated activity at the service.

This report is a follow up to our reports published in July 2013 and February 2014. We inspected this service on 13 June 2013 and 31 December 2013, when we noted some issues which had a moderate impact on people using the service. These related to staffing and to supporting care workers. The provider had not ensured that there were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people's needs. Staff did not receive appropriate support and did not have a chance to develop and improve their skills. During our inspection in December 2013 we found that the provider had made some improvements however, these were insufficient to meet the requirements of the regulations fully.

We issued two warning notices requiring the provider to take steps to comply with Regulations 22 and 23 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.

We carried out an inspection on 18 April 2014 to check whether actions had been taken to become compliant with the Warning Notices. We found that the provider had failed to provide adequate staff to support the people who used the service, we noted that there had been a decrease in staff numbers since our previous inspection.

The registered manager whose name appears in this report was no longer in post at the time of the inspection. Their name appears because they were still a Registered Manager on our register. However, a new manager has now been appointed to the service, at the time of the inspection they were not yet registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the regulated activity at the service. We saw that most staff had received adequate training and supervision and that all staff, who were due, had been appraised.

This report is a follow up to our report published in June 2013. We inspected this service on 13 June 2013, when we noted some issues which had a moderate impact on people using the service. These related to staffing and to supporting care workers. The provider had not ensured that there were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people's needs. Staff did not receive appropriate support and did not have a chance to develop and improve their skills. We set compliance actions requiring the provider to take steps to comply with Regulations 22 and 23 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.

We made a further visit on 31 December 2013 to check on the action the provider had taken to meet the requirements of the regulations. We found that the provider had made some improvements. However, these were insufficient to meet the requirements of the regulations fully. Although staff had received additional training the provider had not ensured that all staff were appraised nor that they were supervised regularly. This meant that staff were not supported to deliver care and treatment safely and to an appropriate standard. We noted that staff numbers had increased since June 2013. However, the provider had not ensured that adequate staff were present at the home at all times to meet the needs of the people who used the service. At the time of our inspection there was also no registered manager in place.

We also spoke with five staff members and the service manager for the home, and looked at all four people's care records. People told us and our observations confirmed that staff provided them with the support that they needed, and encouraged them to develop independence skills. They said that staff listened to them and supported them to take part in activities. However we noted a decrease in the number of activities undertaken outside of the home in recent months. This was due to staffing numbers provided within the home. There was also insufficient staff training, supervision and appraisal in place to ensure that they delivered care and treatment safely and to an appropriate standard.

Procedures were in place to keep people safe within the home and support people with their prescribed medicines appropriately. The home environment was generally well maintained. Quality assurance systems were in place for the home, however staff were in need of consistent management on a daily basis to ensure that they met people's needs safely and consistently.