Archived: Cliff House Care Home

Updated 23 March 2017

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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection took place on the 17 and 23 August 2016 and was unannounced. It was carried out by one inspector on the 17 August and on the 23 August by one inspector and a specialist professional nursing advisor.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information available to us about the home, such as the notifications that they had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

We spoke with four people who used the service and used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk to us. We spoke with four relatives of people who used the service.

During the inspection we spoke with four people, four staff members and the acting manager. We observed how care was delivered and reviewed the care records and risk assessments. We checked medicines administration records and reviewed how complaints were managed. We looked at four staff recruitment records and staff training records. We also reviewed information on how the quality of the service was monitored and managed.

Updated 23 March 2017

Cliff House is registered to provide personal care for up to 40 people and was last inspected in April 2014. This inspection was unannounced and took place on the 17 and 23 August 2016. At the time of our inspection there were 31 people using the service.

The service did not have a registered manager and are required to do so. 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.

There was not enough sufficient trained staff to meet people’s needs and wishes. People were left unattended in communal areas for periods throughout the day. They had no means of calling for assistance.

During our inspection visit we observed that staff were friendly and approachable. When staff delivered care it was done in a respectful and appropriate way. Staff were caring and communicated well with people when they had the opportunity. However, they focused on tasks they were performing rather than on the people they were caring for.

Staff did speak in a positive manner about the people they cared for and they said they wished they had more time to spend with people. Staff had a good understanding of people’s health care needs however no account was taken of emotional or personal needs. People were offered healthy food and drinks though they did not have free access to drinks. Staff were not always available to assist people to eat their meals in a timely manner.

Mostly people were left un-stimulated and had nothing to occupy them other than a TV which most people could not see or hear properly.

There were no effective training and processes in place for staff to follow to keep people safe. People’s physical health was promoted. However, staff were unaware of how to ensure people’s rights under the Mental Capacity Act were promoted. Medicines were stored appropriately but were not always administered and recorded as prescribed.

Most people were escorted or taken to the communal sitting area when they were dressed. They stayed there for the duration of the inspection visits. Meals were served as a task and no effort was made to make lunch a social occasion. Most people were given their lunch where they had been sitting all morning and were not given the opportunity to socialise and use lunch time as a social activity.

People were supported to maintain relationships with family and friends. Visitors were welcomed at any time.

Records we looked at were not personalised and did not include decisions people had made about their care including their likes, dislikes and personal preferences. However, there was a good hand over sheet in use that was personalised. There was little or no activity to stimulate and occupy people. There was one person dedicated to activities. However, due to lack of care staff they were called upon to assist people with everyday living tasks.

The service was not managed in an inclusive manner. People were not facilitated to have their wishes made known, therefore they were not recorded as part of care planning. There was no system in place to capture staffs’ knowledge of people’s needs and wishes.

The provider did not have a quality assurance process in place. There they had no means of identifying and addressing the failings in the service.

We found three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 at this inspection visit. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.