Wharfedale House - Care Home Physical Disabilities

Updated 4 May 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This included checking the provider was meeting COVID-19 vaccination requirements. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by an inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Wharfedale House- Care Home Disabilities is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that the provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. A new manager had been recruited in January 2022 and was in the process of registering with CQC.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours' notice of the inspection. Inspection activity started on 22 February 2022 and ended on 30 February 2022. We visited the location on 22 February 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority, local safeguarding team and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We looked at a range of information including care records, audits, complaints records, recruitment files for staff and records relating to accidents, incidents and safeguarding. We spoke with four members of the management team and three members of care staff. We spoke with three people who used the service and four relatives, to better understand their experience of care provided at the home. We also spoke two professionals who work with the service.

Updated 4 May 2022

About the service

Wharfedale House- Care Home Physical Disabilities is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 14 people aged 18 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 18 people. The accommodation is purpose built to accommodate people with a physical disability and all rooms have en-suite bathroom facilities, there are several containing kitchen facilities.

People's experience of using this service and what we found

We found there was enough staff however the service was dependent on agency staff. People told us they did not want to be supported by agency staff who did not know their needs “they haven’t even read my care plan, they don’t know me”.

The service had improved how agency staff record information related to the administration of people’s medicines. An electronic system had been implemented and all staff were trained. All staff who administered medication had been trained.

The leadership team within the home had undergone significant changes since our last inspection. This included several periods where the service did not have a manager; however, a new manager had been recruited and started in January 2022. Staff and people using the service told us they felt the service was improving under the new leadership “things have started to get better, yes there is improvement”.

The provider audited the service however, some of the audits we received were not robust. We saw evidence accidents and incidents were being recorded however, there was no analysis to identify patterns and trends which could be addressed and used to reduce any apparent risks. We recommend the provider reviews how effective their systems are and takes action to update their practice accordingly.

The provider had addressed and achieved compliance in relation to previously identified breaches of regulation 12 and regulation 17.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 11 March 2021) and there were 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

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.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe, responsive and well-led sections of this full report. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Enforcement and recommendation

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 made a recommendation for the provider to review their implementation of effective quality assurance processes.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published 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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.