Care Quality Commission to take further action with 'inadequate' Wakefield care home

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has again rated West Ridings Care Home in Lofthouse, Wakefield as inadequate following an inspection in October.

West Ridings Care Home, run by Advinia Care Homes Limited, provides support to adults of all ages living with dementia, mental health conditions and physical disabilities

The CQC carried out this inspection to follow up on concerns relating to safeguarding incidents, people’s care not being safe or well managed and how the home is managed.

Following this inspection, CQC has rated the areas of safe, and well-led as inadequate again.

Care and responsiveness have gone down from good to requires improvement and effectiveness has been rated as requiring improvement again.

The service remains in special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while West Ridings Care Home makes improvements.

Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.

CQC has begun the process of taking regulatory action to address the concerns which Advinia Care Homes Limited has the right to appeal.

Victoria Marsden, CQC deputy director of operations, north adult social care, said: “When we returned to West Ridings, it was very disappointing to see a further deterioration in the quality of care being provided since we last inspected despite us providing a detailed report to leaders of where they needed to improve.

"Continued poor leadership and ineffective risk management meant people were receiving unsafe care, which is unacceptable in a place they call home.

“Leaders were still placing people at risk of harm, and we continued to find issues with a high number of people experiencing falls, as well as people having skin tears and unexplained bruising which is very concerning.

“People’s basic care needs still weren’t being met properly. For example, people at risk of skin tears or pressure ulcers weren’t being repositioned in bed regularly which made their conditions worse, and people’s continence care wasn’t managed effectively which affected their dignity and wellbeing.

“Leaders didn’t make sure staff were stationed where they needed to be within the home to keep people safe.

“Communal areas were often left unattended, and we saw someone who was at high risk of falls who required supervision not being supported by staff as needed to keep them safe.

“We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid improvements and will continue to monitor the home closely to keep people safe while that happens.

"We will return to check on their progress and won’t hesitate to use our regulatory powers further if people still aren’t receiving the care they have a right to expect.”

Inspectors found West Ridings didn’t involve people in the development of their care plans and assessments of their needs.

The home didn’t ensure people’s care records were always accurate.

Staff didn’t always protect people’s privacy and dignity or treat them as individuals.

Leaders didn’t always detect and control potential risks in the care environment to keep people safe.

Leaders didn’t ensure lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice.

West Ridings didn’t always manage or administer medicines safely.

The home was unable to support people going into the garden, take part in activities or access the community due to staff not being available.

A spokesperson for the home said: “The safety and wellbeing of our residents is our highest priority, and our teams work tirelessly to provide the best possible support for those in our care.

"Following the CQC’s most recent inspection our leadership team has already formulated and implemented a robust action plan to address the issues highlighted in the report, this includes the appointment of a new home manager.

"It is important to underline that our home supports a high number of extremely dependent residents.

"Over time local authorities have placed individuals into our care while failing to complete timely assessments or adjust resources to reflect the level of support required.

"This leaves providers like us delivering care significantly below cost, and under unsustainable pressure.

"Despite this, our dedicated team continues to deliver compassionate care. We remain fully committed to our residents and their families and we thank them for their patience at this time.”