The Vale Care Home

Updated 30 March 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 completed by two inspectors. An expert by experience undertook telephone calls to family and representatives of people receiving care. 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

The Vale Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. The Vale Care Home is a care home registered to provide nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

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 and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with eight people who used the service. Our Expert by Experience spoke with seven relatives of people receiving care. We spoke with professionals visiting on the day of inspection. We also spoke with eight staff including the registered manager, nurses, senior care staff, care assistants and domestic staff. We looked at a range of records. This included care records for three people, multiple medication records, a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection we continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 30 March 2022

About the service

The Vale Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 40 people aged 65 and over. At the time of the inspection 26 people were being supported. The home provides accommodation over two floors, communal areas, bedrooms and bathrooms were on each floor.

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

Improvements had been made in response to our last inspection findings. These improvements needed to be embedded and sustained by the provider.

Systems had been improved to reduce the risk of harm to people. Most people or their representative knew how to raise a concern and who to.

The impact of people’s health conditions, skin breakdown and harm had been reduced through assessment, support and monitoring by staff.

Measures were in place for the safe emergency evacuation of people.

People were supported by enough staff to meet their needs. The provider was recruiting more staff to work at the service to reduce the impact on staff working additional hours and to reduce the need of agency staff.

People received their medicines as prescribed. Some improvements had been made in 'as required' medicine protocols. Medicine audits took place and action was taken when errors were identified.

The management of infection prevention and control practice had been improved. Personal protective equipment (PPE) was used by staff following the current guidelines to reduce the risk of cross contamination and transmission of COVID-19.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

Based on our review of Safe and Well-Led the service was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

The service provided support to five people with a learning disability. The provider took action immediately after the inspection to review the home’s statement of purpose and submit a notification to add people with a learning disability as a service user band. The registered manager had identified to the provider training to raise staff awareness and understanding in supporting people with a learning disability.

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 inadequate (published 19 November 2021) and there were breaches of regulations. 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.

This service has been in Special Measures since 19 November 2021. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 31 August 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. We identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. 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 The Vale Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.