8 February 2022
During an inspection looking at part of 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.