The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated two Norfolk care homes inadequate, following inspections in September and October.
Greenacres and Pinetops, which are run by New Boundaries Community Services Limited, are located on The Street in Felthorpe. Both services care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
The services were inspected to assess whether improvements had been made after they were previously rated inadequate following inspections in 2021.
The latest inspections found there continued to be serious failings at the services, so both have been rated inadequate overall again, as well as for being safe and well-led. CQC did not consider its other key lines of enquiry – which asks whether a service is effective, caring and responsive to people’s needs – as these inspections were undertaken to assess progress in specific areas.
Following the inspections, CQC liaised with the local authority, which is also monitoring the services, to ensure people’s safety. CQC also sought assurances from New Boundaries Community Services Limited that concerns affecting people’s immediate safety, such as inadequate fire doors, would be actioned as priorities.
New Boundaries Community Services Limited is also required to submit monthly reports to CQC detailing steps it is taking to ensure and improve the quality and safety of care people receive at the homes.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s director for people with a learning disability and autistic people, said:
“We previously told New Boundaries Community Services Limited where it needed to improve the care it provides to people at Greenacres and Pinetops, so it is unacceptable progress was not made.
“We found people weren’t supported to be independent or to pursue activities that would improve their quality of life. This was worsened because people were often supported by staff who didn’t know them well.
“We also found measures to safeguard people from the risk of abuse weren’t always followed, which increased the possibility of them coming to harm.
“These issues had become established because leaders didn’t understand or grasp challenges the services faced, so they hadn’t developed strategies for improvement.
“We’ve reported our findings to New Boundaries Community Services Limited, so it knows where it must make improvements to ensure people receive better care.
“If our next inspection finds adequate progress hasn’t been made, we’ll take further action which could lead to us cancelling these services’ registrations, which would mean they couldn’t lawfully provide care to people.”
The inspections found:
- People were not supported to have maximum choice and control in their lives. Staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible or in their best interests because policies and systems in the services did not support this. Where people's freedoms to make choices had been restricted, these decisions were not appropriately reviewed, or alternatives considered
- People's interests, goals and aspirations had been identified and recorded, but appropriate staffing was not always available to support people to achieve these. This meant people were not supported to increase their independence and enjoy a good quality of life
- Care needed to be more person-centred, and people's leisure opportunities and access to the wider community were insufficient. People led restricted lives and spent a lot of time at the service or at New Boundaries Community Services Limited’s activity hub
- Staff mostly treated people with kindness and respect, but systems and processes did not enable staff to help people develop
- People were frequently supported by staff who did not know them well, and staff were often monitoring people rather than encouraging them to develop
- New Boundaries Community Services Limited had failed to ensure people were fully safeguarded from abuse, as measures and procedures were in place but not followed. This placed people at risk of harm
- The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff did not ensure people led confident, inclusive and empowered lives
- Oversight of care delivery and the culture at the service was poor. This placed people at risk of receiving unsafe care and treatment
- Care did not meet people's complex needs
- The values of the service, as set out in its policies and procedures, were not evident in practice
- New Boundaries Community Services Limited did not ensure staff had the training, skills and experience needed meet people’s needs. Staff were demotivated and the culture of the service was not inclusive and progressive.
- Action plans had not successfully driven improvement and did not demonstrate a cohesive culture.