Care home now in special measures
THE care home at the centre of the abuse hearing has been placed in special measures after receiving an overall rating of ‘inadequate’.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection of Prestbury House Care Home in April, May and June, following the police investigation into Dias and Ciecielowski.
The home was rated inadequate for safety, leadership, effectiveness and responsiveness and ‘requires improvement’ for how caring the service it provides is.
Inspectors found the service was ‘not always safe’ with ‘no challenging behaviour care plans’ for some residents, and some staff were ‘not competent to know when to report safeguarding concerns’.
The CQC also found ‘staffing levels were not sufficient’ to meet care needs, and ‘medication management was not always safe with some people not receiving their prescribed creams and food supplements’.
They said staff didn’t always have the necessary training in dementia care and ‘care delivery was not always seen to be compassionate with inappropriate use of language used within care documentation’.
The CQC said training for staff was not effective and it was ‘delivered in a compressed way, with staff watching up to nine different training DVDs in the same day’.
Inspectors also found a serious complaint/ allegation from April ‘had no investigatory records to confirm what actions had been completed as part of the investigation and also no response to the complainant’.
The care home has the capacity to look after 75 people.
A spokesperson for Porthaven Care Homes Group, which owns the home, said a previous inspection in October 2016 found the service was ‘good’ in all areas.
He added: “Each day we strive to provide the very best care and support, and put the safety, health and wellbeing of residents at the forefront of everything we do.
“The CQC has a very important and valuable role to play, but we do not agree with the findings of this report. Therefore we have formally challenged its accuracy and ratings.
“The standard of care and support we provide is recognised by the local authority in its quality assessments as very high, and we receive consistently positive feedback from residents and their families, 94 per cent of whom have said they would recommend us to a friend in the last 12 months.
“Indeed, the CQC itself has very positively assessed the standard practices used at Prestbury House in multiple previous inspections, where we have a consistent track record of being rated ‘Good’ in all areas.
“We are proud of the high standards of care we provide, and believe this report in no way reflects the quality of life at the home, which family members have rated as 9.6 out of 10 on the independent comparison website, carehome.co.uk.
“We look forward to welcoming the CQC back to demonstrate to them the high-quality, compassionate and responsive care service we have always provided.”