Archived: Kingsthorpe View Care Home

Updated 25 March 2022

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.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice is safe and that services are compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 17 February 2022 and was unannounced.

Updated 25 March 2022

About the service

Kingsthorpe View is a purpose-built residential care home, providing personal and nursing care to people living with a mental health diagnoses, dementia, physical disability or sensory impairment. The service can support up to 50 people. At the time of our inspection there were 28 people living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The provider and registered manager had failed to ensure effective infection prevention and control measures were in place. Some staff were observed not wearing masks.

Some areas of the environment remained in need of repair and redecoration. In particular some areas of the flooring and

some bedrooms in the service. Whilst we saw the provider had an improvement plan in place for the service, these were actions that had been requested following our previous inspection of 11 November 2020.

The registered manager had failed to implement robust systems and processes for the governance and oversight of the service. This meant audits were ineffective as improvements identified, had not been implemented. There were no effective audits found for some aspects of care delivery. For example, we found a lack of audits for the call bell system. This meant the registered manager could not be confident that staff were responding in a timely manner when people requested assistance via their call bells.

The registered manager had not been responsive to complaints and concerns raised by relatives of people using the service. Which would allow them to bring about improvement across the service.

The provider and registered manager had failed to ensure all staff had received training which the provider had deemed as essential for their roles. For example, not all staff had received training in safeguarding vulnerable adults or diabetes awareness.

Care plans and risk assessments seen, were inconsistent in their directions to staff to support safe and consistent care. Whilst some contained clear information, others lacked detail.

People living at the service were receiving their medicines safely and as prescribed for them. Systems and processes were in place to ensure medicines were managed safely.

People told us they were happy living at Kingsthorpe View, they felt supported by a sufficient number of kind and caring staff. The majority of relatives we spoke with did not express any significant concerns regarding the service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did support this practice

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was Inadequate (published 25 September 2021) and there were multiple breaches of the regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection not enough improvement had been made or sustained and the provider was still in breach of some regulations.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about a poor response to complaints from the registered manager and indications of poor infection control practices in the service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection.

We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to the environment, infection control, staff training, governance and oversight at this inspection.

Full information about CQC's regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’. However, this service remains in special measures. We place services in special measures when they have been rated as 'Inadequate' in any Key Question over two consecutive comprehensive inspections. The ‘Inadequate’ rating does not need to be in the same question at each of these inspections for us to place services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.