A care home in Tottenham has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and placed in special measures, following an inspection in July.
80 Meridian Walk is a care home for people with a learning disability and autistic people and was inspected as part of CQC’s ongoing checks to assess the standards of care being provided to people.
The inspection found a significant drop in the quality of care at the service, which was previously rated good overall and in all key areas.
Following this latest inspection, 80 Meridian Walk is rated inadequate overall and inadequate for being safe, caring and well-led. It is rated requires improvement for being effective and responsive to people’s needs.
The service has breached a number of regulations and CQC has taken action and told the service what it must to do to meet its legal requirements. It has been placed in special measures and will be kept under close review by the CQC to ensure it is providing safe and effective care to people.
If significant improvements aren’t made, further enforcement action will be taken, which could include taking steps to close the service.
James Frewin, CQC head of adult social care inspection, said:
“There has been a significant drop in the quality of care being provided at 80 Meridian Walk, which falls way below the standards of what people should be able to expect.
“People weren’t supported to be as independent as possible, and staff weren’t ambitious for those in their care. We saw staff giving someone just one chance to feed themselves before taking over.
“A culture of low aspiration had been allowed to develop in this home, with minimal stimulation and engagement for the people who lived there. Activities were extremely limited, and people were rarely supported to leave the house.
“Strong, person-centred values were not embedded at the service, and care was routinely task-based and didn’t consider people’s individual needs.
“We’ve asked for this and other issues to be addressed urgently and will monitor the service closely over the coming months. If we aren’t satisfied that significant progress is being made, we will take further enforcement action, which could mean placing restrictions on its registration or preventing it from providing care to people altogether.”
The inspection found that the service didn’t manage risks to people well.
It also found people weren’t supported to have maximum choice or control over their lives and that they weren’t involved in decisions about their care. They didn’t have the opportunity to become involved in their local community, and inspectors saw people sitting for long periods of time without any mental stimulation or engagement.
Staff didn’t always treat people well or respect them and repeatedly spoke about people while they and their housemates were in the room. They didn’t always talk to people while supporting them with activities such as eating, and they moved people or performed care tasks without explaining what they were going to do first.
There was no effort to engage people living at the home or their relatives in decisions about the service and people weren’t invited to give feedback.
However, there were enough suitably skilled staff to care for people and they knew how to keep people safe from abuse. People could access healthcare services when they needed them, and their bedrooms were personalised and reflected those who lived in the home.