The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Kingsthorpe View care home in Nottingham as inadequate and placed it in special measures following an inspection in July.
Kingsthorpe View, run by Kingsthorpe View Care Home Limited, is a care home providing personal and nursing care for people, some of whom are living with dementia. The service can support up to 50 people. At the time of the inspection, there were 43 people living in the home.
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns the CQC had received regarding people’s safety and the personal care being provided.
During the inspection, the CQC found four breaches of regulation, including concerns around person-centred care, safe care and treatment, staffing, and management.
As well as the home’s overall rating declining from requires improvement to inadequate, the ratings for being safe, effective, caring, and well-led have also declined. It has again been rated requires improvement for being responsive.
The service has been placed in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by the CQC to ensure the safety of residents while improvements are made. The CQC is also considering further use of its regulatory powers to protect people.
Steven Paisley, CQC interim deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said:
“When we inspected Kingsthorpe View care home, we found poor leadership and staff who didn’t know how to identify risks and take effective action regarding concerns. This meant people living at the home weren’t receiving safe, dignified or person-centred care.
“The service didn’t always protect people from avoidable harm and neglect. We found repeated incidents where people had fallen, but staff hadn’t taken any action to prevent it from happening again. Relatives told us their loved ones weren’t always supported with their personal hygiene, as people had dirty hair, nails and teeth, and one person had been left in a soiled incontinence pad for a long time.
“Leaders hadn’t created a safe environment for the people who called Kingsthorpe View home. One bed-bound resident had no call bell, which meant they couldn’t request staff support if needed. The garden was also unpleasant, with dangerous, uneven surfaces. Despite relatives raising concerns with leaders, no action was taken, meaning people couldn’t spend leisure time outside.
“While staff were kind and caring, there weren’t enough of them to provide safe support to people in a timely manner. For example, one person spilled a cup of tea on their shirt at breakfast, and it stayed like that until after lunch, as staff hadn’t noticed this or changed the shirt. When we spoke to staff, they told us they felt guilty because there wasn’t time for them to have meaningful conversations and activities with people at the home.
“We have told Kingsthorpe View care home that we expect to see rapid and widespread improvements and will continue to monitor them closely to keep people safe while this happens. We will return to check on their progress and won’t hesitate to take further action if people are not receiving the care they have a right to expect.”
Inspectors found:
- People were not supported to understand safeguarding or how to raise concerns.
- People’s care plans were not kept up to date, and assessments had not been completed in a timely manner.
- Staff were not provided with clear guidance on people’s preferences to enable them to provide appropriate support.
- People were not supported to make decisions about how their support was provided.
- Staff did not encourage or help people to maintain their independence.
- People were not encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities, either at the service or in the community.
- Leaders did not use information effectively to monitor and improve the quality of care.
