CQC demands action to improve services at Sonning care home

10 May 2011

Orchard Lodge is not meeting 12 out of 17 essential standards.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors who visited Orchard Lodge Care Home in Sonning Common near Reading found that it was failing to meet 12 essential standards of quality and safety.

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

Orchard Lodge is a small, private, family run care home that provides residential care for up to eleven people. The home provides services to people who have dementia.

CQC reviewed all the information it holds about this provider and carried out a visit in February 2011. It observed how people were being cared for, talked to people who use services, talked to staff, checked the provider’s records, and looked at records of service users.

The CQC report, which is published today, found that Orchard Lodge was not meeting 12 essential standards. Inspectors had major concerns in two areas.

• Consent to care and treatment: People in the home were not involved in making decisions about their own care and treatment. The home did not ensure that people had assessments of mental capacity to make some or all of the decisions about their care, treatment and support.
• Assessing and monitoring the quality of service: Orchard Lodge did not have effective systems in place for monitoring the quality and safety of care given and did not take into account the feedback from people and their families in order to address concerns or make improvements. Staffing levels and roles and responsibilities were not based on an assessment of need or the competency levels of staff. There were no clear lines of accountability and systems for the effective day-to-day management of the home were not in place.

CQC Regional Director for the South East, Roxy Boyce, said: “The quality and safety of care provided at this home is not good enough.

“Our inspectors will return to Orchard Lodge shortly and if we find that the home is not making progress we won’t hesitate to take further action on behalf of the people who live there.”

CQC has now given the provider seven days to produce plans to show how it intends to achieve compliance. By law, providers of care services have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting the essential standards of quality and safety.

Ends

For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9239 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors