White Cliffs Lodge

Updated 21 July 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors

Service and service type

White cliffs lodge is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. White cliffs lodge is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. A new manager had been in the post 2 weeks at the time of our inspection and was in the process of submitting their application to register.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people who used the service and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 8 staff including the locality manager, home manager, deputy manager, senior support staff and support staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people's care records including medicine records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment. Records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 21 July 2023

About the service

White Cliffs Lodge is a care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to maximum 15 people. The service provides support to people who need support with their mental health and or people with a learning disability and autistic people. At the time of our inspection there were 13 people using the service.

The service was separated into two houses, White Cliffs Lodge and White Cliffs Court. White Cliffs Lodge supported 6 people. White Cliffs Court supported 7 people in their own self-contained flats.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

Staff did not always support people to achieve their aspirations and goals. Staff were not always able to support people to take part in activities and pursue their interests in their local area due to the availability of drivers. People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice. For example, best interest meetings had not always been carried out. However, following inspection the provider carried out best interest meetings with family members where a need was identified.

Right Care

Staff had not always protected people’s privacy and dignity. Not all people had curtains or blinds at their windows. Staff had not consistently applied their safeguarding training as incidents were not always recorded or reported in line with guidance, not all staff had completed their safeguarding training. People were not always supported in line with their care and support plans, for example, some people were at risk of choking and staff had not always followed guidance, resulting in choking episodes. We observed kind and caring interactions between people and staff during inspection

Right Culture

The culture of the service did not always enable staff to continuously learn and improve. For example, lessons learned from incidents were not always analysed and shared with staff. The service had recently introduced the use of advocates to support people. The service was aware of some of the concerns we identified on inspection and had already started to implement a service development plan to address the issues.

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 24 January 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management of people’s specific health risks and their safety. As a result, we undertook a comprehensive inspection.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for White cliffs lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to people’s safety, how the service manages and mitigates risks to people and the overall governance and running of the service, person centred care and the skills and competencies of staff.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

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.