The Vale Residential Care Home

We found that risks to people were not being well managed. Risks relating to epilepsy management, choking and skin integrity had not always been managed safely. Staff lacked knowledge on how to report incidents of concern to ensure that action could be taken to understand and mitigate risks to people. Systems and processes to ensure that safeguarding and incidents were recorded and reported appropriately were not robust. There were not sufficient staff to meet people’s needs. Governance systems had not been effective in identifying and addressing the concerns identified within this inspection.

There was a closed culture at the service. A "closed culture" is a poor culture that can lead to harm, including human rights breaches and abuse. We found a poor culture across the entire service, which had not been recognised or addressed by the provider.

We found significant shortfalls across the service and identified breaches of 4 regulations in relation to safeguarding, safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance.

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 user 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.