1 April 2011
St Agnes Care Home is not meeting 14 out of 16 essential standards.
Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors who visited the St Agnes Care Home in Silverbirch Road, Erdington, Birmingham found that it was failing to meet 14 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 the home in January following a serious incident which resulted in the death of a service user, which is being investigated by the police. Since then CQC has been working closely with the local council, the police and St Agnes to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people living in the home.
The CQC report, which is published today, highlights eight main areas of concern:
Safe and appropriate care
Inspectors found that people who use services did not always experience safe and appropriate care, treatment and support that met their needs and protected their rights. Failure to recognise and respond to risks and challenging behaviour has placed people at risk.
Safeguarding people from abuse
Staff and managers at the home did not have the knowledge, skills, training and awareness to ensure people with very different needs were cared for safely together.
Management of medicines
Medication management in the home is poor and places people at risk.
The care environment
The heating and call bell facilities in the home need to be improved to ensure the safety and comfort of people living in the home.
Staff numbers
People living in the home were not always fully supported by the right number of staff at the right time to meet their needs. This placed them at risk.
Staff training and supervision
Staff are not adequately trained or supported to meet the needs of people with complex physical and mental health needs.
Managing risks
Systems for assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision are not effective.
Record keeping
People using this service cannot be confident that personal records are accurate or fit for purpose. Records required to protect safety and wellbeing, such as training records, were not adequately maintained and therefore did not contribute effectively to service development.
CQC Regional Director Andrea Gordon said: “As well as these eight major concerns, we also found that the home needed to make improvements in other areas.
“For example, people were not always respected or involved in day-to-day decisions about how their care is provided or asked for their consent before they are given examinations, care or treatment. In addition, people in the home could not be confident that they were getting the right food and drink and we found that people did not always get safe and coordinated care when they moved between services.
“The quality and safety of care provided at this home is simply not good enough. Our inspectors will return to the home in the near future and if we find that they are not making progress we will consider further action.
“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
About the CQC: Snippet for press releases
About the Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.
We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.
Read the report
Read the reports from our checks on standards at St Agnes Care Home.