Arncliffe Court Care Home

This was a planned follow-up assessment. At the previous assessment, the service was placed in special measures, and the provider was found to be in breach of legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment, medicines management, staffing, good governance, and consent. At this assessment, we found the provider remained in breach of legal regulations in safe care and treatment, medicine management, consent to care and treatment and good governance.

We continued to find serious issues due to ineffective management and poor oversight. Although a new management team was in place, some of the concerns identified at the previous assessment, where enforcement action had been taken, remained during this assessment.

People did not always receive safe care. Risks relating to people’s care were not always well managed, identified, or acted upon. In addition, medicines were not always managed safely.

People were treated with kindness and compassion. However, staff did not always ensure people understood their care and treatment to give informed consent. Additionally, where people lacked capacity, those important to them were not always involved in making important decisions in their best interests.

Leaders and managers had not made the necessary improvements. The environment was not always safe for people. For example, some bathrooms were unclean, and people’s bedroom doors did not close properly in the event of a fire, and the provider did not consistently ensure care and treatment were person-centred. Some care plans were inaccurate, lacked sufficient detail about people’s needs, or contained conflicting information. While some activities were available, they were limited in number, inconsistently delivered, and not always suitable for people living with dementia.

Quality assurance processes were not always effective in identifying the concerns found or in driving the necessary improvements.

This service remains in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure 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.