Regulator tells Arbory Residential Home it is not protecting the safety and welfare of people who use its services

23 May 2011

Arbory Residential Home is not meeting 14 essential standards.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors who visited the Arbory Residential Home, located on the outskirts of Andover, found that it was failing to meet 14 essential standards of quality and safety.

Arbory residential home is a large care home, registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to 64 residents who require nursing or personal care. It is owned by ABC Shelf Ltd.

CQC inspectors visited the home in December 2010 as part of our routine schedule of planned reviews, and as a result of concerns raised to us by Social Services. We reviewed all the information we hold about this provider, observed how people were being cared for, talked with people who use services, talked with staff, checked the provider’s records, and looked at records of people who use services.

The CQC report, which is published today, has concerns about 14 essential standards with major concerns in five areas:

• Care and welfare of people: Residents were at risk of not always being given safe and appropriate care. Their care needs were not identified correctly and there was a lack of management control to ensure that staff carried out their care responsibilities effectively.
• Nutrition: Residents were not always supported to have enough food and drink. Their nutritional needs were not always assessed and monitored effectively, which put them at risk of harm to their health.
• Cleanliness and hygiene Residents were put at risk because the home did not provide and maintain a clean and appropriate environment and did not have systems to manage and monitor the prevention and control of infection.
• Management of medicines: There was unsafe management of medicines. There was a lack of effective monitoring, dispensing and recording that meant people did not always receive the correct medicines as prescribed.
• Staff training and supervision: People did not have their needs met by competent staff. Staff had not been trained and supervised effectively to improve their practices.

Arbory Residential Home has submitted an action plan to CQC, outlining how it will address these remaining concerns in order to meet the standards. Inspectors will return to the care home unannounced to check whether the improvements have been made and to decide whether to initiate formal enforcement action.

CQC Regional Director for the South East, Roxy Boyce, said: “The care at Arbory Residential Home has fallen far short of the standards people have a right to expect.

“The law says these are the standards that everyone should be able to expect when they receive care. Providers have a duty to ensure they are compliant – or face the consequences. 

“Our inspectors will return to Arbory Residential Home very soon, and if we find that the home is not making progress we won’t hesitate to take enforcement action on behalf of the people who live there.”

By law, providers of care services have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting the essential standards of quality and safety. We will continue to monitor progress and we will check to make sure that the improvements have been made.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, the Care Quality Commission has a number of new enforcement powers that enable it to act swiftly when services are failing people. These include issuing warning notices, restricting the services that a provider can offer or the way it is provided; or, in the most serious cases, suspending or cancelling a service. CQC can also issue financial penalty notices and cautions or prosecute the provider for failing to meet essential standards.

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