2 February 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
The Mount is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation for up to 18 people some of whom may have Dementia. The service was supporting 15 people at the time of the inspection.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the home were either not in place or were not effective in identifying shortfalls. The providers governance systems had failed to identity the shortfalls we found during this inspection in relation to management of medicines, risks, and records to ensure staff had clear information on how to meet people’s need and preferences.
Risks to people were not consistently well managed and left people at potential risk of harm. Staff did not have clear information about known risks and how to manage and reduce these. Medicines were not always administered safely, and storage of cold medicines was not always monitored.
People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.
Some staff training was not up to date and not all staff followed safe practices when supporting people. People were not always consulted about the home to ensure their preferences were considered. Improvements were required within the environment as certain areas had an odour and needed redecoration.
People were supported by staff that understood how to protect people from abuse. People had access to routine healthcare checks to monitor their healthcare needs. Staff felt supported in their role. Systems were in place to support people to maintain contact with their loved ones. The manager was described as approachable, open and transparent.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was good (published 29 March 2019).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part by a notification of an incident following which a person using the service sustained an injury and died. This incident is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any regulatory action should be taken. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident. However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the management of risk and falls management. This inspection examined those risks. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well led sections of this full report.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Mount residential care home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to the management of risk and medicines, consent and to the overall governance of the service.
Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
Follow up
We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.