The Vicarage Residential Care Home

The last assessment for this service was completed on 3 June 2023 and there was 1 breach of regulation identified regarding people’s person centred care. During this assessment we found 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to governance, staffing and person-centred care. The provider had been in breach of legal regulations relating to person centred care for the last 3 assessments. Governance processes had not identified the shortfalls in care we identified, safe recruitment checks had not been completed consistently, and care did not always meet people’s needs and preferences.

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Staff was not always recruited safely as some of the pre-employment checks such as obtaining references or conducting criminal checks were not completed.

We noted some concerns regarding fire safety such as fire doors not shutting properly and the fire risk assessment not being completed. There were also several environmental concerns observed such as people’s furniture not anchored to the wall, faulty equipment and a number of areas requiring decoration.

There were safeguarding policies and procedures in place and people told us they felt safe. Staff overall knew how protect people from harm and abuse. Staff received safeguarding training, but they did not always know how to escalate concerns.

People’s medicines were managed safely and people received medicines at the times these were prescribed although, not all the medicines were stored in a safe way.

There was not always enough staff to meet people needs especially during the nighttime.

People did not always receive care tailored to their individual needs and wishes or have access to meaningful activities. We observed people were spending most of their time sitting in the lounge watching television having very little interaction with staff. Activities offered to people were inconsistent and dependant on staff availability. There was no evidence people had opportunities to participate or engage with the wider community.

There were a number of audits and quality checks in place. However, these were not effective as they did not pick up the issues and concerns, we identified during this assessment. For example, daily walk rounds completed by the registered manager failed to identify environmental and fire safety issues. We were not assured completed actions plans such as the fire safety action plan were robust or adequately addressed the areas for improvement. Learning opportunities were often missed and not shared with staff. There was no provider’s oversight in place.

People and staff spoke positively about the registered manager and felt they could always speak to them and raise concerns.