About the service Manor Court is a residential care home that provides personal and nursing care for up to 111 people. The service is divided into four units but at the time of the inspection one unit, Beech, was closed. Three units are for older people and one unit is for younger adults with physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection 56 people were living at the service. Some of the older people were living with the experience of dementia.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Some of the provider’s care practices did not always ensure people living in the home were safely cared for. Risk management plans were not always followed. Incidents and accidents were not investigated consistently and did not always demonstrate learning outcomes to prevent future incidents. There were not enough staff effectively deployed to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. ‘When required’ medicines protocols did not always describe the person’s specific needs so it was clear when to administer these medicines. The provider did not always assess the risk of harm to people who used some paraffin-based creams.
Activity provision was not person centred, therefore people’s individual interests were not always met. Our observations during the inspection showed that people were not always treated with dignity and respect or in a person-centred manner.
The provider had systems in place to monitor, manage and improve service delivery and to improve the care and support provided to people but these were not always effective and had not identified issues we found at the inspection. Records regarding incidents and accidents, safeguarding and complaints was not always consistent in demonstrating how they had been investigated, followed through into the care plan and lessons learned recorded and disseminated.
Supervisions, appraisals and training were carried out regularly to develop skills staff required to undertake their roles. However, staff did not always demonstrate they had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs safely and effectively.
Staff knew how to respond to possible safeguarding concerns to help ensure people’s safety. Safe recruitment procedures were in place to ensure only suitable staff were employed to care for people.
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’s needs were assessed prior to moving to the home. People were supported to maintain healthier lives and access healthcare services appropriately.
There was a complaints procedure in place and the provider knew how to respond to complaints appropriately. People and staff reported the registered manager was approachable.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 5 June 2019) and there were multiple breaches of 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 and the provider was still in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement in all the key questions.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Manor Court Care Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to people being cared for safely, receiving person centred care, people being cared for with dignity, staffing and leadership at this inspection.
After the last inspection when we rated the service inadequate we took enforcement action against the provider. We have imposed a condition on the registration of Manor Court Care Centre that restricts the admission of new people to the home. We have also imposed other conditions on the provider that require them to send monthly reports to the CQC on the staffing arrangements in the home, the state of care planning for new service users and the findings of a number of checks and audits.
As we do not consider that enough improvements have been made at the home, we will continue with the conditions currently imposed on the registration of Manor Court care Centre.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
Special Measures
The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’ and the service will remain 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 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.