5 March 2019
During a routine inspection
People’s experience of using this service:
• The quality of care people received had significantly deteriorated since the last inspection.
• Poor risk assessment and management meant people had been placed at risk of avoidable harm.
• Staffing levels were not sufficient to support people to lead full and active lives.
• The provider had failed to escalate incidents or allegations of concern to relevant third parties.
• Some people had experienced harm because of poor practice and ineffective governance systems and processes.
• The service met the characteristics of inadequate in Safe, Well-Led and Caring.
• Please see more information in Detailed Findings below.
Rating at last inspection: The service was last inspected in April 2017 and was rated as Good.
Why we inspected: This inspection was brought forward in response to concerns received about the quality of care people received. We received concerns about a number of key care aspects, including staffing levels and people’s safety. At the time of the inspection we were aware of incidents being investigated by third parties.
Enforcement: Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found in inspections and appeals is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
Follow up: 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.
Following the inspection we referred our concerns to the local authority responsible for safeguarding. We also requested information from third parties to enable us to decide what regulatory action we should take to ensure people’s safety.
Shortly after the inspection the provider submitted an application to cancel their registration with us and advised they planned to close the service from May 2019.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk