22.04.15
Fresh wave of adult social care inspections highlight national problem
Almost half of the adult social care providers inspected in a fresh wave of Care Quality Commission (CQC) reports have been rated as ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’, it has been revealed.
Since October 2014, CQC began to roll out its new inspection regime for adult social care services across England with an aim to rate every service provider by March 2016.
In the latest round of inspections, the regulator revealed that of the 65 adult social care services rated in the South of England region, 10 were rated ‘inadequate’, 28 ‘require improvement’, and 27 ‘good’.
At one of those rated inadequate, Angela Court in Devon – which has been the subject of a whole home multiagency safeguarding investigation since November 2014 – “people were not protected from abuse”.
At Fairways Residential Care Home in Bournemouth, “people's bed rails were not fitted correctly” and one resident who had asked to be taken to the toilet was still left in the lounge 40 minutes later.
At Mulberry Care Limited in Reading, people’s safety was compromised in the home with the premises and some equipment “not cleaned or well-maintained”.
Adrian Hughes, CQC's deputy chief inspector for adult social care, said: “People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.
“Whenever we find a service to be inadequate, we will consider taking further action on behalf of the people who use the service, so providers of those services should take the publication of the inadequate rating as a signal that immediate action is required to improve the service”
In the past week, the CQC has also published a further 48 reports on the quality of care provided by adult social care services across the Central region. It revealed that 25 were rated as good, 19 rated requires improvement and four inadequate.
Those rated inadequate included Medic2 UK Limited in Essex; Guysfield Residential Home, Hertfordshire; The Cottage Nursing Home Limited, Northamptonshire; and Friars Hall Nursing Home, Suffolk.
A further 47 reports on service providers across the North revealed that 28 were rated as good, 15 requires improvement and four inadequate: Carrgreen Nursing Home, Calderdale; Admiral Court Care Home, Hartlepool; Walkden Manor, Salford; and Ascot Lodge Nursing Home, Sefton.
In the capital 31 new reports highlighted that 20 were rated good, eight requires improvement and three as inadequate. These included Riverdale Court, Bexley; and two organisations in Kingston upon Thames: Lynton Hall Nursing Centre and Park Lodge.
The CQC stated that since October its Adult Social Care (ASC) Directorate has carried out over 4,200 comprehensive ratings inspections across community based adult social care services, hospice services and residential social care services and has published ratings for over half of these.
As of 13 April 2015, ASC had rated 18 outstanding, 1,554 good, 844 requires improvement and 229 inadequate.
Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]