Regulator tells Parklands Court care home it has failed to protect the safety and welfare of people who use its services

1 April 2011

Parklands Court is not meeting four out of 16 essential standards.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors who visited Parklands Court Care Home, Bloxwich, Walsall, found that it was failing to meet four out of 16 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.

The inspectors visited in December 2010 because they had concerns about the home. They reviewed four specific areas. Since then CQC has been in contact with the local council to make sure improvements are made that ensure the safety and wellbeing of people living in the home.

The CQC report, which is published today, highlights the regulator’s concerns with the four areas the inspectors looked at:

Safe and appropriate care

Inspectors found that care instructions were not always available or not always followed by staff. This means that people did not consistently receive the care they needed.

Safeguarding people from abuse

There were not enough staff to ensure people living at the home were adequately protected from abuse. We were told of 42 incidents of people hurting each other over the previous six months.

Staff numbers

Staff were not always available in the right numbers to ensure that people were adequately supervised and had their needs met in a timely manner.

Staff training

Not all staff were up to date with the knowledge and skills needed to do their job due to a lack of training which could affect the safety and wellbeing of people using the service.

CQC Regional Director Andrea Gordon said: “The quality and safety of care we found at this home simply wasn’t good enough. We were particularly concerned that the home did not have enough staff to be sure of keeping people safe and meeting their needs.

“The home’s owners understand how seriously we take these issues and our determination to make sure they comply with essential standards of quality and safety.

“We have a range of enforcement powers we can use, 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.

Ends

For media enquires, please contact Nicola Stewart on 0121 600 5344, CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors