About the service Swan Care Residential Home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 21 older people some of whom may be living with dementia. At the time of the inspection 13 people were living in the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The provider’s infection prevention and control processes did not protect people from the risk of harm. The provider had not followed government guidelines. During the inspection we found senior members of staff who had tested positive for COVID-19 working in the service.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was not always stored or used effectively and some communal areas of the service were unclean.
The provider had not notified health professionals promptly during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the service. This meant people were at risk from not receiving appropriate care and support to meet their health needs.
The provider did not have robust processes in place to ensure they had oversight of the safety and quality of the service. The concerns found at inspection had not been identified by the checks and audits completed by the provider.
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 comprehensive inspection rating for this service was good (published 12 February 2018).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the management of infection prevention and control in the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has changed from Good to Inadequate. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the Safe and Well-Led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Swan Care residential Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to infection prevention and control, the oversight of the service and the actions taken by the registered manager. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the 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.
The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore 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 rating, 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.