17 January 2024
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Stocks Hall Nursing Home – Skelmersdale is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 60 people. The service provides support to older people, people that may be living with dementia and people who may have a physical disability. At the time of our inspection there were 48 people using the service.
The home is set over 2 floors, and both floors have good sized communal areas for people to use. Visitors have access to a car park and people and visitors can use the garden area.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Improvements were required to manage risk to some aspects of people’s health and wellbeing more effectively and to make sure medicines were managed safely. People were protected from the risk of harm and the risk of mistakes being repeated. People were supported by enough staff that had been recruited safely, and the home was clean and comfortable.
People enjoyed the food at the home, 1 relative said, “The meals are lovely.” The chef knew people’s likes and dislikes and there was a good amount of choice available. There were some gaps in the documentation of nutritional needs.
People were supported by staff that completed regular training and staff knew people well. One relative said, “It is very good care.” Staff supported people to live healthy lives and access wider healthcare agencies.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
Improvements were required to the governance of the service to make sure elements of risk were identified and changes made where required. People were supported by staff that enjoyed their jobs. One member of staff said, “We get on together, we work well as a team.” Staff and relatives could provide feedback about the home and the registered manager worked well with external agencies.
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 rating for this service was good (published 27 September 2018).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the management of medicines, and the management of some health needs. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘All inspection reports and timeline’ link for Stocks Hall Nursing Home - Skelmersdale on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to assessing risk, medicines and governance of the service at this inspection.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.