Archived: Summerdale Court Care Home

Updated 27 January 2021

The inspection

This was a targeted inspection to follow up on specific concerns which we had received about the service. The inspection was prompted due to concerns received about infection prevention and control.

Inspection Team

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors. One inspector worked at the service and the second worked remotely off-site to help prevent the risk of the spread of infection.

Service and service Type

Summerdale Court Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person who used the service and 4 members of staff including the regional manager, a senior care worker and care workers. We made general observations of the home. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked documents relating to the management of the service.

Updated 27 January 2021

About the service

Summerdale Court Care Home is a care home with nursing. It is registered to provide care and support for up to 110 people in one purpose built building. However, the provider had closed two of the units and limited their capacity to 58. Forty six people were living at the service at the time of the inspection. There was one unit which specialised in supporting people living with dementia. There was one nursing unit which provided care to people with nursing care needs. Both of the units were on the ground floor.

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

People described the service’s safety as reasonable. However, people, relatives and staff told us there were not enough staff deployed to meet people’s needs and that staff did not always have the right knowledge to support them. People received their medicines as prescribed however agency staff did not always record the reason why medicines given on an ‘as needed’ basis had been administered.

Staff told us they would report instances of abuse and records we reviewed showed allegations of abuse were escalated to the appropriate safeguarding authority to be investigated. The provider had assessed most risks people faced and had plans to keep them safe from the risk of harm. Staff understood how to prevent the spread of infection.

Staff had developed good relationships with people living at the service and treated them with respect. Staff knew people’s preferences and most care plans contained personalised information however, records of the care provided each day did not always demonstrate whether or not care had been tailored to their preferences.

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 supported this practice.

People had enough food and drink but menus and place settings were not dementia-friendly. People had access to health care services and people were supported with their oral care. Similarly, the building was not set up to provide people living with dementia to reminisce about their lives but the registered manager told us they had an improvement plan for the building.

The registered manager had been in post for four months and was supported by an experienced deputy manager. The management team had begun to make improvements in the team culture and care delivery following our previous inspection but these were not yet fully embedded at the service.

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 30 July 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulations. The service was placed in special measures. At this inspection we found some improvements had been made but the service continued to be in breach of other regulations. The service remains in special measures because we cannot be assured improvements have been fully embedded at the service.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Enforcement

We have identified three breaches of the Regulations in relation to staffing, good governance and safeguarding adults from abuse and improper treatment.

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.

Follow up

The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’. However, the service is remaining in 'special measures'. We do this when services 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/keep services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and 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, which includes 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.