25.08.15
Almost half of social care providers failing in central region
Almost half of the adult social care services across the central region need to improve, according to recent reports by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The inspections, which focus on whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led, rated 14 services as “requiring improvement” in a total of 37 locations.
Sue Howard, deputy chief inspector for adult social care in the Central region, said: “If we find that a service requires improvement, we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue. We will share our findings with local commissioners, and we will return in due course to check that the required improvements have been made.
“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.”
Though services can be rated as needing improvement even if three of the four requirements are identified as “good”, several locations CQC inspected were failing at every level.
Five services needed improvement across all relevant areas, with one location, Guysfield Residential Home, having inadequate and ineffective systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the overall service.
These included breaches of regulations in the Health and Social Care Act 2008, issues with staff shortages and failure to monitor accidents and to ensure residents were fed and hydrated – after already failing to meet the necessary standards in three previous inspections.
During the inspection, the manager told CQC that there was no business continuity plan for managing staff shortages. One person had also told inspectors that they were not aware who the manager even was.
Earlier this month, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care, Andrea Sutcliffe, warned the body would always take tough action against providers delivering “unacceptable” care.
The statement came after The Old Village School Nursing Home was rated as inadequate and placed in special measures after an unannounced inspection.
“It is our expectation that providers should use our inspection reports to get to grips with their problems and ensure they sort them out,” she said.