The Oaks Private Residential Home, Wigan rated Inadequate by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has put The Oaks Private Residential Home, Wigan, Greater Manchester into special measures to protect people using this service, after rating the service as Inadequate after an inspection earlier this year.

The home is registered to provide personal care and support and diagnostic and screening procedures for up to 31 adults. There were 25 people using the service at the time of the inspection.

This was an unannounced inspection that took place on 12 April 2016.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are given a rating to help people choose care. We ask five questions, are services; safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Overall, The Oaks Private Residential Home has been rated as Inadequate.

The full report from the inspection can be found here on our website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-128697380.

At the inspection on 12 April 2016 we found ten breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These breaches related to: safe care and treatment, person centred care, safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, privacy and dignity, meeting nutritional and hydration needs, premises and equipment, complaints, good governance and staffing.

The report identified a number of areas which we found concerning including:

• Staff spoken with did not have a clear understanding of the whistle-blowing procedures and were unsure of what to do if they if they suspected any abuse or neglect of people who used the service.
• We found that people were not cared for by sufficient numbers of suitably skilled and experienced staff.
• Staff had not undertaken up to date training and support to enable them to do their job effectively and care for people safely.
• We observed that people's dignity was not always respected.
• We found the systems for managing medicines were unsafe and that people were not receiving their medicines in a timely manner as prescribed. For some people the risk identified placed them at risk of significant harm.
• Not all areas of the home were clean and well maintained. We observed areas of poor infection control and a lack staff hygiene which could increase the risk of cross infection to people who used the service.

Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:

“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.

“We found the care provided at The Oaks Private Residential Home fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide. This is why we have intervened to keep people using this service safe.

“Our first instinct is to make sure the service improves, but we must take action to protect people when we are worried about their safety.

“The service will be kept under review and, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action should the service deteriorate further.”

Ends

For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here. Please note: the press office is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters.

For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.