Care home in Northampton given second ‘inadequate’ rating despite promising improvement plans

A Northampton care home that was previously rated ‘inadequate’ eight months ago has been re-inspected and rated the same once again.

The Leys Residential Home in Booth Rise, Boothville was visited by two Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors on July 21, where they found a number of issues with the home.

The most recent inspection, which was announced 15 minutes before it happened, was a routine follow-up after the home received an ‘inadequate’ rating in December last year.Despite Midland Care - the company that runs the home - saying improvement plans were already in place in December last year, just over a month ago, inspectors still found a number of concerns including hydration needs not always being monitored, staff not always offering support to those who need help repositioning and the lack of a registered manager.

According to the company, new processes were implemented but were moderated remotely due to the pandemic, which led to ‘false assurances’.

In the categories ‘safe’ and ‘well-led’, the care home, which was caring for 18 people at the time of the inspection last month, was rated ‘inadequate’, which led to it being rated ‘inadequate’ overall.

For the ‘effective’, ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ categories, the home was rated ‘requires improvement’, which is one higher than ‘inadequate’.

Back in December 2018, the care home received a rating of ‘requires improvement’ before slipping to ‘inadequate’ a year later.

The July 2020 report says: “There was a continued lack of understanding, oversight and governance systems to ensure people received a safe service.

“Systems that were in place were not implemented effectively and audits did not identify ongoing concerns with the service.

“People's hydration needs were not always monitored, and timely action was not taken to address concerns where people's fluid intake was low.

“People were at increased risk of pressure sores because they were not always repositioned in line with the care plan.

“Injuries or bruising people had sustained had not always been investigated or reviewed.

“Medicines were safely managed, staff had been safely recruited and completed an induction. People told us they felt safe and the staff supporting them were kind.”

The inspectors also found that there were not enough staff members present at night and food hygiene measures were not consistently followed.

The report continued: “We took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection.

“We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance at this inspection.

“At this inspection, the provider had not made enough improvement and was still in breach of regulations.

“We will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider's registration, we will re-inspect within six months to check for significant improvements.”

Midland Care has appointed a new manager for the care home following on from ‘false assurances’ that processes were being followed.

A spokeswoman for the company said: “The Leys has been successful at keeping Covid-19 out of the building.

“New quality assurance systems and processes were implemented as planned.

“However, these were monitored remotely due to the pandemic which led to false assurances the manager in post had oversight of our service.

“There is now a new manager in the post and we are working closely with CQC to improve the service and ratings.”

The Leys will be inspected by CQC again in six months.

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