Rotherham care home is rated as Inadequate by CQC

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Holly House Residential Home in Rotherham, South Yorkshire that it must make improvements or face further enforcement action.

During an unannounced inspection in November 2014, inspectors found that the home was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, responsive or well led.

A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-131420656.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall, Holly House Residential Home has been rated as Inadequate.

CQC has issued the provider with three warning notices setting a deadline for improvements in relation to the safeguarding people who use services from abuse, consent to care and treatment, and quality assurance.

The report identifies a number of areas in which improvements are required:

• 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.
• There was a lack of staff knowledge on how to identify or respond to the risk of abuse, and the provider’s own safeguarding policy did not describe the appropriate steps to follow should safeguarding concerns be identified.
• Checks carried out on staff as part of the provider’s recruitment processes had not always been carried out to an appropriate standard before staff began work at the home.
• There were arrangements in place to regularly review people’s needs and preferences, however, changes to people’s needs were not always appropriately acted upon.
• Staff training arrangements were disorganised, and the registered manager had little oversight over what training staff had received.
• Although systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service being provided, these systems had failed to identify serious shortfalls in the way people’s finances were recorded.

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

“It is unacceptable that people living at Holly House Residential Home were not receiving care which was safe, effective, or responsive to their needs.

“Staff interacted well with residents and treated them with dignity and respect. They had a good knowledge of people’s needs and preferences, and people using the service spoke positively about the care that they received.

“However, the shortfalls we identified, particularly in relation to quality assurance and staff knowledge of safeguarding procedures, need urgent attention, and we have made it clear that these issues should be addressed as a priority.

“We will return to the home to check that the necessary improvements have been made. If not - we will take further action to make sure that people living there receive care which is safe, effective, and responsive to their needs.”

Ends

For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Officer Mark Humphreys on 0191 233 3519. Alternatively, the CQC press office can be contacted on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07789 876508.