Archived: Churchfields

Updated 9 March 2016

We carried out this unannounced inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned in response to a number of concerns that had been raised in respect of people’s safety and the management of untoward incidents. We did not follow up on the breach identified in our last report. This will be undertaken at a later date with a comprehensive inspection when we will check to establish whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. At that point we will look at the overall quality of the service, and provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 27 January 2016. The inspection team consisted of two inspectors. Prior to our inspection we reviewed information we held about the service. This included previous inspection reports, information received and statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events and the provider is required to send us this by law. We used information provided by the local safeguarding team about recent events.

During the inspection we spoke with five people who were living at the service and two people who were visiting their relations. We spoke with six members of staff and the registered manager. We also looked at the care records of four people who used the service, five staff files, as well as a range of records relating to the running of the service, which included audits carried out by the registered manager.

Updated 9 March 2016

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection at Churchfields on 3 March 2015. After that inspection we received information that raised concerns from the local safeguarding team in relation to a number of areas following a safeguarding investigation. As result of this we undertook a focussed inspection. This report only covers the areas focussed on during this inspection. You can read the report from out last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Churchfields on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This focused inspection took place on 27 January 2016. Churchfields is run and managed by Methodist Homes. The service provides accommodation and nursing care for up to 70 people. On the day of our inspection 50 people were using the service. The service is provided across two buildings. People requiring nursing care were accommodated in one building over two floors with a passenger lift connecting the two floors. People requiring residential care were accommodated in a separate building over three floors with a lift connecting all floors.

The service had a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were protected from the risk of abuse. Staff were aware of the types of abuse people who lived in the home may be exposed to and they understood their responsibilities in relation to protecting people in their care.

Although individual risks to people were assessed and recorded in their care plans the provider could not demonstrate people were fully protected from the use of faulty equipment as processes for monitoring cleaning and checking of equipment in use were not robust. People were not always protected from preventable risks as the provider did not always respond to safeguarding incidents in a timely way. Staff recruitment was safe and the distribution of appropriately trained staff to each area was appropriate.

Although staff had received training to develop their knowledge and skills in relation to their job role

there was a lack of assessment of their competency to check their learning.

People were protected under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 [MCA]. Individual mental capacity assessments and appropriate Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding [DoLS] applications had been made.

People received personalised care from staff who knew their needs. People felt they could report any concerns to the management team and felt they would be taken seriously.

People could not be assured that internal company processes were fully effective as the provider’s response to a serious incident had been slow. In addition to this, feedback to staff about the outcome of this incident and any changes required was not robust. This resulted in lessons learned being slow and communication between the different units not always being effective.