Archived: Ridgeway Lodge Care Home

Updated 4 January 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 23 October 2016 and was unannounced. It was prompted by receipt of concerning information in relation to the lack of safe care for people who used the service and the ineffective management of the service. The inspection was carried out by one inspector from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Before the inspection, we reviewed information available to us about the home, such as whistleblowing concerns from staff, concerns from people’s relatives and notifications sent to us by the provider. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

During the inspection we spoke with eight people who used the service, and five relatives of people to gain feedback on the quality of the service. We also spoke with five care staff, the deputy manager and the registered manager.

We observed how care was delivered and reviewed the care records and risk assessments of four people who used the service. We also looked at four people’s daily records and checked their medicines administration records. We reviewed records of accidents and incidents, looked at the staff roster and staffing dependency assessment tool. We also reviewed team meeting minutes and looked at information on how the quality of the service was managed.

We spoke with the provider’s regional manager after our inspection to discuss our finding and the actions they were taking to address shortfalls.

Updated 4 January 2017

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 23 May 2016 following the receipt of some information of concern and we found that improvements were required. After that inspection we received concerns in relation to the lack of safe care for people who used the service and the ineffective management of the service. As a result we undertook a focused inspection to look into those concerns. This report only covers our findings in relation to those topics. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Ridgeway Lodge Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Ridgeway Lodge is a residential care home in Dunstable, providing accommodation and support for up to sixty-one older people. At the time of our inspection there were sixty people living at the home, some of whom were living with dementia.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

We found that people’s medicines were not managed safely, and the staffing levels were not adequate to meet people’s needs. Some moving and handling practices carried out within the service were unsafe and had not been risk assessed. This meant that people were not always safe at the service.

The provider had a robust recruitment policy in place and staff had been trained in safeguarding people and were aware of the reporting procedures in relation to concerns they may have.

People, their relatives and staff did not feel listened to by the management team. In addition, the provider’s quality monitoring system was not effective in identifying and addressing shortfalls in the service. Improvements were also required in the management of people’s care records.

During this inspection we identified that there were breaches of a number of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 relating to the safe care and treatment of people, staffing and good governance. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’.

Services in special measures will be kept under review and, if we have not taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider’s registration of the service, will be inspected again within six months. The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe.

If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve. This service will continue to be kept under review and, if needed, could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement so there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action to prevent the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their 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.