Cheshire care home has failed to protect people’s safety and welfare says regulator

29 February 2012

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told registered provider the Pallottine Missionary Sisters that they must make improvements at Park Mount Care Home to comply with the essential standards of quality and safety.

Inspectors have found that the care home on Park Mount Drive, Macclesfield, Cheshire, has failed to protect the safety and welfare of people receiving their service.

A report published by CQC says that the provider was not meeting all six essential standards inspectors looked at and in five of these areas a major concern was identified.

Providers of care services have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting all essential standards of quality and safety.

The visit to Park Mount Care Home, took place in January 2012 as part of CQC’s routineprogrammeof inspections. When inspectors visited the care service they found the care provided was falling short of standards people should be able to expect and improvements were needed. The report, published on the CQC website highlights five major areas of concern:

Care and welfare of people who use services

Inspectors were concerned some individuals living in the home had care and support needs that had increased and that the home may no longer be the most appropriate place to provide the level of care and support they now needed.

Poor use of risk assessments meant that people’s risks were not being identified or appropriately managed. Inspectors found that one person’s mobility risk assessment had not been reviewed for over a year despite them suffering a number of falls since the last assessment had been completed.

Safeguarding people who use services from abuse

There had been a significant number of incidents in the home in the sixth month period prior to CQC’s visit. These were recorded in the home’s accident and incident book, but those incidents which should have been notified to the CQC and social services had not been referred on. Staff were unclear as to what action they needed to take if they suspected an individual living in the home was at risk of abuse or had been abused.

Supporting staff

At the time of the visit, there was no home manager in post and inspectors found that staff lacked leadership as a result. Staff had received training; however, CQC’s visit to the home identified areas where staff had additional training needs. For example, care planning, and also moving and handling.There was no overall monitoring of staff training to indicate what training had been undertaken and when refresher training would be needed.

Monitoring of service provision

Inspectors found a lack of processes to assess and monitor care quality. There was no overall quality assurance framework in place and only a limited amount of auditing was being carried out.

Records

Inspectors found that care plans had not been updated when individual needs changed and noted gaps in staff training and supervision records.

During their visit,inspectors also identified moderate concerns in relation to respecting and involving people who use services.

Debbie Westhead, CQC Regional Lead for the North West, said:

“The failings at Park Mount Care Home are a real concern and improvements need to be made.

“CQC has been working closely with Cheshire East Council Social Services to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people receiving this service and we have told the provider where they need to improve.

“Where improvements are not made we have a range of enforcement powers that can be used, including prosecution, closure or restriction of services.”

Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.

The provider has given CQC assurances since the inspection that they will work hard to improve the service and achieve compliance, and has already taken action by appointing a temporary home manager.

Ends

For further information please contact the CQC Regional Communications Team, David Fryer 07901 514 220 or Kirstin Hannaford 0191 233 3629.

The CQC press office can be contacted on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors