Archived: Bidston Lodge

Bidston Lodge is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to 10 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 16 people in one adapted building.

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

The service was not well-led. The systems at the home were not used by the home manager and registered manager to assess the quality and safety of the service effectively. They were at times not able to use their systems to provide us with basic information about the service provided for people. When concerns had been raised they were in some areas slow to react or reacted in a way that was not effective; this meant that at times things went wrong again in a short timeframe.

The provider had not put a system in place to ensure that recruitment process followed the regulations and was safe.

The provider and registered manager had not ensured that the culture of the home was always respectful and empowered people to have maximum control and choice over their lives. Staff did not always support people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. Consulting with people in a meaningful way was not embedded into the culture of the service.

We recommended that the provider consulted with people about their preferences with their care and support; and arranged people’s care to meet these preferences as much as possible.

People’s medication was administered safely at the home. We have made a recommendation that the provider ensures that there was a system in place for recording all medication stocks on hand.

People told us that they felt safe living at Bidston Lodge. People and their relatives told us that they thought they were treated with respect. One person told us, “The staff are fantastic.”

The home was well decorated in a homely style. One person told us, “I like it here, it’s lovely.” The provider had made improvements to the design of the home to meet people’s needs. For example, they had recently arranged for new accessible bathroom facilities to be fitted on the ground floor.

Care staff told us that they felt supported in their roles. They spoke positively about the new provider and told us that the atmosphere at the home had improved since they took over.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 28/04/2019 and this is the first inspection.

The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 9 April 2019). Since this rating was awarded the registered provider of the service has changed. We have used the previous rating and enforcement action taken to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the safe management of the home. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to person-centred care, safe care and treatment, fit and proper persons employed and good governance at this inspection.

During the inspection the provider took action to mitigate some of the risks that had been identified. You can see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report. This included issuing the provider with a warning notice. If the provider fails to achieve compliance within the timescale on the warning notice, we may take further action.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and 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.