Archived: Laurel Lodge Care Home

Updated 23 June 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors and was unannounced.

Before our inspection we looked at information we held about the service including statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We also obtained feedback from the local authority’s quality assurance team, an Infection Prevention and Control Nurse working for public health at the local authority and also the fire service.

During our visit we spoke with the registered manager, the home manager, the assistant manager and three care staff.

At the inspection we looked at two people's care plans, accident and incident records and risk assessments.

Updated 23 June 2016

This inspection took place on 17 May 2016 and was unannounced. It was carried out to establish whether improvements had been made regarding areas of concern that we identified at our previous two inspections. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key question of whether the service provided safe care.

Laurel Lodge is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to 27 older people. There were 25 people living at the home at the time of our inspection.

At the time of this inspection there was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was also a partner in the business and therefore the provider. The registered manager has been referred to as the provider throughout this report. There was also a home manager in post who was managing the home on a day to day basis. This person has been referred to as the home manager throughout this report.

When we inspected this service on 17 March 2016 in relation to the key question of safe, we found a breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. After the inspection we asked the provider to send us an action plan of how they intended to address the breach of the Regulation. We did not receive the action plan from the provider..

We then undertook a comprehensive inspection of this service on 26 April 2016. During this inspection we found a repeated breach of Regulation 12. We also found at that inspection breaches of Regulations 11 (consent), 12 (safe care and treatment), 15 (premises and equipment), 17 (good governance), 18 (staffing) and 19 (fit and proper persons employed) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. After the inspection we asked the provider to send us an action plan of how they intended to address the breaches of the Regulations. At the time of writing this report we had not yet received an action plan.

As a result of our inspection in April 2016 the service was placed in special measures.

We found during this inspection that the provider still did not ensure that all reasonable steps were taken to ensure the risks to people were minimised. Risk assessments were still inadequate. Where risks had been identified the provider had still not taken effective action to reduce the risks in a timely way.

You can read the report from both our focussed inspection on 17 March 2016 and our comprehensive inspection on 26 April 2016 by selecting the 'all reports' link for 'Laurel Lodge Care Home' on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We have not changed the rating for the key question of safe following this inspection.