About the service Ealing Eventide Homes Limited – Downhurst is a care home for up to 26 older people. At the time of our inspection, 21 people were living at the home. Some people were living with the experience of dementia. The service is managed by Ealing Eventide Homes Limited, a charitable organisation. This is their only registered care home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were not cared for safely. The provider had not always assessed, monitored or managed risks to people, staff and others. There were not always investigations or analysis when things went wrong, to find out what happened and to learn from these. A number of recent safeguarding concerns have shown that the provider had sometimes failed to identify and record any lessons learned following an investigation to reduce possible risks.
We found concerns with regard to staffing levels. The management team was very depleted at the time of our inspection. The home was without a manager and deputy manager and two of the four senior support workers posts were vacant. This had impacted negatively on the safe oversight of all aspects of managing the home. In addition, staffing levels at night were not always safe. This was because the provider had not allocated senior support staff for every night in line with the assessed staffing requirements for the service.
The provider did not have a robust oversight of the service, which meant they had not adequately monitored and assessed the quality of the service which has deteriorated through time. The lack of an effective management team had impacted on addressing the concerns found at the last inspection. At the time of the inspection the nominated individual and the acting deputy manager were managing the service and leading the staff team. However, they did not have full access to the management systems supporting the service delivery and did not have the operational knowledge to provide the assurance that the service would be managed safely and in a responsive manner.
Medicines were not managed in a safe manner. This was because people were not always administered their medicines as prescribed.
Whilst the provider had infection prevention and control (IPC) policy and procedures and had provided staff with infection control training, we found some staff and management did not always comply with safe IPC practices, for example they habitually wore their PPE masks in an unsafe manner. In doing so they put people at risk of cross infection.
People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. This was because mental capacity assessments were not completed appropriately.
The provider had not always ensured people’s care plans reflected their current care needs and care plans did not describe people’s wishes as to how they wanted their care provided. There was insufficient guidance for staff on how to provide care in a person-centred manner.
People told us staff were “good” and they felt safe at the home. We observed individual care workers providing support in a caring, polite and respectful manner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection (and update)
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 20 April 2021) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found the service had deteriorated to a rating of inadequate and the provider continued to be in breach of multiple regulations.
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the lack of a robust management team. We also received concerns from whistle blowers. These concerns included failure to report safeguarding incidents in a timely way, failure to investigate these and about poor care. We also inspected to see if the provider had made improvements in line with their action plan to address the previous breaches of regulations.
This was a focussed inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make further improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report. In addition, we also looked at part of the responsive and caring key questions but did not award a rating for these key questions. So, the ratings from the previous inspection were used to give an overall rating for the service.
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.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to inadequate. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ealing Eventide Homes Limited – Downhurst on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches of regulations in relation to person-centred care, consent to care and treatment, safe care and treatment, premises and equipment and good governance at this inspection.
Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
Follow up
We will meet with the provider to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
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.