Wordsworth House, Burnley rated Inadequate by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has put Wordsworth House, Hapton, Burnley into special measures to protect people who use the service, after rating the service as Inadequate after an inspection earlier this year.

Wordsworth House is registered to provide care for up to 40 people. Larchwood Care Homes (North) Limited, who operate the home, is registered with the Commission to provide accommodation for persons who require nursing. At the time of our inspection there were 38 people in receipt of care from the provider.

We under took a comprehensive inspection on 19, 20 April and 10 May 2016. The 19 April and 10 May 2016 was unannounced which meant they did not know we were coming.

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, Wordsworth House has been rated as Inadequate.

The full report from the inspection can be found here on our website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-310629223

We found breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 in relation to safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, safe care and treatment, staffing, premises and equipment, meeting nutritional and hydration needs, person-centred care, dignity and respect, receiving and acting on complaints, good governance and fit and proper persons employed. We also found a breach of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 in relation to notifying the commission of notifiable incidents.

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

• Systems to monitor and review concerns were inadequate. During our inspection we identified a number of concerns relating to allegations of abuse that had not been reported in a safe and appropriate way. We asked the home manager to refer the concerns that had been identified during our inspection to the Local Authority safeguarding team.
• Observation of medicines administration identified concerns relating to the length of time it took to administer all the medicines. Some medicines that were required before breakfast were not given as directed. We noted gaps in Medicines Administration Records (MAR) and the coding system lacked clarity on why medicines were not given. We noted that some people had not been given their medicines as prescribed by their doctor.
• There were not enough staff available in the home to care for people and to maintain their safety.
• Systems to protect people from the risks of infection were ineffective and we observed poor infection control methods employed by staff at the home. We saw evidence of an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting that had not been referred to the relevant authority.
• Systems to ensure that the environment was safe were ineffective. Maintenance and small repairs had not been undertaken when necessary.
• Deficiencies in record keeping meant that care planning and risk assessment was poor. This meant that there was a lack of directions for staff to follow when carrying out the delivery of care for people at the home.

Systems to monitor the quality of the service were ineffective and problems at the home affecting people’s care and wellbeing had not been identified or addressed by the service provider.

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 Wordsworth House fell a long way short 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

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