The Cottage Residential Care Home

The Cottage Residential Care Home is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. The care home accommodates up to 10 people who have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder. People who use the service may also have mental health needs, a physical disability or dementia. At this assessment there were 6 people living at the service. We identified 5 breaches of regulation related to safe care and treatment, safeguarding, staffing, consent and governance.

We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

There was a significant lack of oversight and management of governance systems since the provider was no longer available to support the service. The managers currently overseeing the service did not demonstrate the necessary skills, knowledge, or experience to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people using the service. Systems and processes were not effective to enable the manager to identify where quality and/or safety was being compromised and to respond appropriately and without delay.

People were not safeguarded from abuse, and we found there was a lack of documentation in place to support consent. Risks to people were not managed safely, the environment was not safe or well maintained. We were not assured about the quality of food being provided as we found several out-of-date items in the fridge, Staff were not adequately trained and medicines were not managed safely. Infection control processes were not always safe.

This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded.