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A care home has been rated as inadequate and placed into special measures. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected Homelands Nursing Home in Cowfold, West Sussex, in January and found it to be inadequate. The home, which is run by Medicrest Limited, provides nursing and personal care for up to 42 people, some of whom are living with dementia.
The home has two accommodation buildings, The Manor House and The Coach House, which support people with nursing care and those who have advanced dementia. Following the inspection, the overall rating for the home, as well as the areas of safe and well-led, moved down from requires improvement to inadequate. The areas of caring and responsive have declined from good to inadequate.
Effective has moved from good to requires improvement. The service has been placed in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made. CQC issued a warning notice following the inspection to focus their attention on making significant improvements around people’s care and treatment, safeguarding, and the management of the service.
CQC has begun the process of taking regulatory action to address the concerns, which Medicrest Limited has the right to appeal. Neil Cox, deputy director of operations in the south, said: "During our inspection of Homelands we found that poor leadership had led to inconsistent care across its two residential buildings, the Manor House and the Coach House, which put residents at risk of harm. "Leaders and staff didn’t recognise how to promote people's rights, choices or independence causing a restrictive culture within the Coach House.
"This meant the people living there weren’t being supported in a person-centred way where they were able to make decisions about their own care, and their right to consent wasn’t always being respected. "Staff didn’t always respond to people’s needs and act quickly to minimise their distress. "Staff didn’t always ensure people at the Coach House had access to call bells to request help and they didn’t always act when people requested help, such as getting additional blankets or hot drinks when people said they were cold.
"Vulnerable people were relying on all staff members to act as their advocates, to help them live their best lives and it is unacceptable the people they relied on were treating them this way. "Leaders didn’t have an effective system in place to ensure people were protected from potential abuse. "People had sustained unexplained injuries and been subjected to restrictive practices, but staff had failed to understand their duty to report these to CQC and the local authority safeguarding team.
"This is unacceptable. "In addition, leaders didn’t always investigate or report incidents appropriately and hadn’t created a culture where staff could learn from incidents to try and prevent them from happening again. "This included when people had been injured while staff supported them to move around the home, and when someone had become trapped in a bedrail.
"We have told Homelands where immediate and widespread improvements are needed to keep people safe. "We’ll continue to closely monitor the home, including through further inspections, to make sure people are kept safe while these improvements are made." Inspectors found that care plans were not personalised to account for people’s individual needs, preferences, and choices.
They also found that leaders hadn’t ensured there was enough staff to meet people’s needs, with some staff working up to 72 hours a week. Leaders had not always recruited staff safely or given staff the right training and supervision for their roles. People’s medicines weren’t always managed safely.
Leaders lacked understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and how to apply it to people’s care. For example, CCTV was in use without consent because leaders felt residents would not understand its purpose..
