Watchdog tells care home to improve after finding leadership shortcomings

A care home for the elderly has been told it must raise its performance after an inspection by the health watchdog discovered failings in the way it was led.

A report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has given Beechwood Lodge on Meadow View in Rochdale an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’, due to shortcomings in its leadership.

The home was found to be ‘good’ in terms of how caring, responsive safe and effective it was.

But officials found management systems were ‘not always reliable’ and measure to ensure a high-quality service were applied inconsistently.

This led to its leadership, and therefore its overall rating, being found to ‘require improvement’.

However, managers say they remain ‘immensely proud’ of the establishment and its ‘brilliant caring staff’.

Beechwood Lodge provides accommodation for 66 older people, some of whom are living with dementia.

In their report, inspectors praised staff for quickly responding to residents’ health needs and respecting their privacy and dignity.

But there were a number of criticisms over record-keeping and procedures which led to the home being told it must improve.

Inspectors said it was not clear that staff working at the home had been properly vetted before being taken on.

The report states: “Some personnel files included supervision and training records, whilst others did not. They did not always show that appropriate checks had been made to ensure that people employed were of the right character to work with vulnerable people.”

The watchdog also found that reviews of care plans sometimes overlooked changes in people’s circumstances and that risk were sometimes overlooked.

A record of falls at the home was found to be blank, and this had also been overlooked when audited by an area manager.

An annual legionella check was due for renewal, and had not been picked up by the service.

These faults amounted to a breach of the Health and Social Care Act.

The home was also reminded of its responsibility to notify the CQC of anything which might affect the safety and welfare of residents, after it emerged it had not informed officials of an incident involving the police.

Manager Jilly Grimbley said that everyone at Beechwood Lodge took great pride in having rated ‘good’ in four of the five categories it was assessed on.

She said: ”We are all immensely proud of our home with its en-suite wet rooms and spacious lounges.

“There is nothing else like it in the borough. It is a tremendous asset to the people of Rochdale and has created over 60 jobs.

“Since it was opened in 2014, we have built up a reputation for care to match the standard of the accommodation. I hope people read the report in detail it consists of 18 pages of observations nearly all of which are highly complementary, even outstanding.

“In common with many other homes CQC have found mainly errors in documentation which have not affected their findings of ‘good’ in each of the four main categories.”

She added: “At the time of the inspection we were changing over to the latest electronic care planning system and we can now see the benefit of it.

“We have brilliant caring staff and probably the highest number of staff hours per resident in the area.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter