CQC has rated Westmead, a care home, in Castleford, inadequate and placed it into special measures to protect people following an inspection carried out from April to July last year.
Westmead is a residential care home, run by The Bridge Community Care Limited, providing accommodation and personal care to people with learning disabilities. At the time of this inspection the service was at full capacity with nine people living at the home.
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns CQC received relating to staffing levels, managing people’s needs, medication management, the living environment and the effectiveness of leaders.
Following this inspection, the home’s overall rating has dropped from requires improvement to inadequate, as has its rating for being safe and well-led. Its rating for being responsive has dropped from good to requires improvement. On this occasion, CQC partially inspected how effective and caring the service was, focusing on areas where concerns were received. Therefore, these ratings weren’t changed and remain rated as good from their previous inspection.
The service has been placed in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people already living there safe whilst improvements are made. CQC has also proposed using its regulatory powers further.
Shiela Grant, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:
Our experience tells us that when a service isn’t well-led, it’s less likely they’re able to meet people’s needs in the other areas we inspect, which is what we found at Westmead.
Staff weren’t always safeguarding people from abuse as they told us they didn’t feel confident about raising concerns. Leaders hadn’t put robust systems in place to ensure purchases made with or on behalf of people were legitimate. Also, when everyone went out for meals, some people had to pay for themselves and others didn’t, but there wasn’t any explanation as to why this was.
Leaders had not created an environment which was safe for the people who called Westmead home. We found holes in walls and loose electrical sockets. We observed damage to the flooring and staff told us there had been a maggot infestation between the floorboards. Also, a carpet had been glued to the floor without any underlay, resulting in a very hard surface. All of this put people at risk of harm.
We found leaders weren’t managing staffing in a way that supported people’s individual needs. Staff were scheduled to work with people they didn’t know well, which meant an increase in incidents as staff didn’t know people well enough to de-escalate situations. Some staff described incidents which could have been prevented if the staff team were more skilled, knowledgeable and confident about people’s needs.
Additionally, two people had been served notice that they had to leave the service as they could no longer meet their needs. When we asked the management team, it was clear the decision wasn’t founded on solid evidence and the provider hadn’t explored alternatives to enable them to remain at Westmead.
We expect to see rapid and widespread improvements and will continue to monitor people living at Westmead closely to keep them safe while this happens.
Inspectors found:
- Staff did not always manage medicines safely.
- Westmead did not adequately assess, monitor and review risks to people.
- People were not supported to maximise their independence.
- Leaders were not carrying out efficient quality checks of the service.
- Leaders at Westmead had not taken action to remedy the issues identified prior to this inspection.
- Leaders did not encourage an open and candid approach throughout this inspection.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.
