Elmcroft Care Home

Ratings

• Overall

  Inadequate

• Safe

  Inadequate

• Effective

  Inadequate

• Caring

  Inadequate

• Responsive

  Inadequate

• Well-led

  Inadequate

Our view of the service

Elmcroft Care Home is a residential care home with nursing provision, set over 2 units: Blythe and the General Nursing Unit (GNU). The service is registered to provide care for younger and older people, those living with dementia, and people with a physical disability. At the time of our inspection, the service was also registered to provide care for people with a learning disability and or autistic people. The service was not supporting any people with these care needs, and the provider applied to remove this service user band during our inspection. At the time we announced our assessment, 46 people were living at the service. We carried out our on-site assessment on 7 May 2024, 9 May 2024, and 14 May 2024. A Pharmacist Specialist inspector visited the service on 28 May 2024 to review medicines management. Off site assessment activity started on 7 May 2024 and ended on 4 June 2024. We completed this assessment in response to concerns we had received about the service. We looked at quality statements relating to areas in safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. We identified 5 breaches of the legal regulations relating to person-centred care, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, governance, and staffing. We have told the provider they need to make improvements. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

People's experience of this service

Whilst some people expressed they were happy with their care, our assessment found care did not meet the expected standards. We received mixed feedback from people using the service, with both positive and negative comments. We observed institutionalised practice on site, as whilst staff were kind and well-meaning they lacked the staffing numbers, training, support and guidance to deliver consistent support. People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. There were limited ways for people to spend their time in alignment with their own needs, ambitions and preferences, and care was largely task-orientated and not personalised to individuals. A person told us, “I really don't know what I'm going to get up to today. I'm fed up. I've really nothing to do.” Another person said, “Do I get visitors? No, not really. We just sit in here all day except for mealtimes.”