We inspected Aston Manor on 30 and 31 August and 8 September 2017. The first day of inspection was unannounced. This meant the home did not know we were coming.Aston Manor is a care home registered to provide nursing and residential care for up to 32 people. It consists of one building with two floors, although the upper floor has a split level. All bedrooms are single with ensuite facilities. At the time of this inspection there were 24 people living at the home.
On the ground floor there is a communal lounge and separate dining room. On the upper floor there is a communal lounge with dining area. Both floors have shared bathrooms, toilets and shower rooms. The home has an enclosed garden area with seating.
Aston Manor was last inspected in April 2017. At that time we identified multiple breaches of regulation. As a result, the home was rated as ‘Inadequate’ overall, as it was deemed to be ‘Inadequate’ in the key questions of Safe, Effective and Well-led, and ‘Requires Improvement’ in the key questions of Caring and Responsive. This inspection found some improvement had been made at the home but it was not sufficient to change the overall rating from the last inspection. The home is therefore still inadequate and remains in special measures.
Services in special measures will be kept under review and, if we have not taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider’s registration of the service, will be inspected again within six months. The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe.
If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve. This service will continue to be kept under review and, if needed, could be escalated to urgent enforcement action.
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.
The home had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
Feedback from people and their relatives about safety at the home was mixed. People were seen using labelled walking frames, an improvement from the last inspection, but risk assessments and care plans had not been updated for people supported to transfer by staff using handling belts.
Most aspects of the building and its facilities, utilities and equipment were safe. However, personal emergency evacuation plans had not been updated for several months and a risk assessment of the water system in July 2017 concluded people were at risk of Legionella and effective action had not yet been taken.
People’s moving and handling risk assessments and care plans lacked the detail staff would need to support them safely to mobilise, and to bathe and shower. One person with swallowing problems had no choking risk assessment in place. Care plans to manage risk to people’s skin integrity were not clear. These were all issues raised at the last inspection.
Most medicines were managed and administered safely. However, medicine administration records for people’s topical creams were not always completed; some care plans for ‘when required’ medicines were missing or lacked person-centred detail.
Staffing levels had improved since the last inspection. We observed people’s personal care and nutrition/hydration needs were met; however, people’s social interaction with staff was limited.
Staff had undergone some training since the last inspection; however, there were still gaps in the training matrix for courses such as the Mental Capacity Act, first aid and food hygiene. A care worker new to health and social care at the last inspection who had not been enrolled on the Care Certificate had been enrolled since, but had only completed a small part of it.
About half of the staff had received one supervision since the last inspection; however, records showed this had not included discussion around their training needs or personal and professional development, in accordance with the provider’s policy.
The registered provider and registered manager were still not compliant with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People had not been assessed for their capacity to make specific decisions relating to their care and treatment. This was a finding at the previous two inspections.
Feedback about the food and drinks served at the home was positive. We observed people were not always given a choice about the food and drinks they received and the support to eat provided by staff was not always person-centred. The detail of food and fluid records had improved, however, on the first day of this inspection, records for breakfast, lunch and snacks had still not been completed by 2.45pm.
Care plans for people who had lost weight did not always include information about the action taken to manage their nutritional risk. This was a finding at the last inspection in April 2017.
People had access to a range of healthcare professionals to help support and maintain their wider health needs. Relatives told us they were kept up to date about their family member’s wellbeing.
Most interactions between staff and people at Aston Manor were respectful, but some were not. The registered manager had deployed a ‘dignity champion’ to challenge poor practice after concerns were raised at the last inspection, but there was still more work to do.
At the last inspection we found no evidence people had been involved in developing and reviewing their care plans. At this inspection we could find no evidence this had changed in the care files we sampled.
Information about people was not always stored securely.
People’s care plans and daily records were not always an accurate and contemporaneous record of their care needs or of the support they received from staff.
People who experienced behaviours that may challenge others did not always receive person-centred support in accordance with their care plans. Some behaviour care plans we sampled lacked detail about triggers for behaviours and suggested de-escalation techniques.
One complaint had been managed by the registered manager since the last inspection. There were no records to show how it had been investigated or responded to.
People’s access to meaningful activity was limited. This was a concern raised at the last inspection.
Although some improvement had been made to the audit process at Aston Manor, the registered manager and provider still lacked oversight of safety and quality at the home.
An action plan provided in June 2017 by a consultancy contracted by the provider had failed to result in significant improvement at the home as we identified new and continuous breaches of regulation.
Relatives had been asked to complete a survey about the service but people who lived at the home had not. There had been no residents’ and relatives’ meetings since the time of the last inspection in April 2017.
As at the last inspection, information about advocacy, the complaints procedure and the home’s CQC inspection ratings was located in the entrance lobby to the building where people could not access it.
When asked, care staff at the home could not describe what good person-centred dementia care should involve.
We found breaches of the Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we have told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.