Care home vows safety overhaul after watchdog warning

A Slough care provider has said it has done a full health and safety review after getting an ‘inadequate’ safety rating from the care watchdog.

Windmill Care Centre, based at 104 Bath Road, offers accommodation for disabled or elderly people, nursing or personal care, and treatment for diseases and disorders, including dementia.

It currently supports 45 people out of a maximum of 53 and is run by residential care company MMCG (2) Limited.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which inspects care services, served a warning notice to MMCG (2) Ltd on June 26 for failing to meet regulations on care and treatment.

In its last inspection – the result of which was published this week – Windmill Care Centre received a ‘requires improvement’ rating overall.

This reflects ‘requires improvement’ scores for most aspects of the care home, namely how effective, caring, responsive and well-led it is.

But the largest area of concern was safety. An inspection was triggered after hearing that staff were bringing their children into work with them.

This brought with it ‘implications and risks’ for people using the service, the CQC said.

During the assessment, the CQC found five breaches of legal regulations in relation to consent, risk management, safeguarding, recruitment, and governance.

Risks to people – including sexual safety – ‘were not always managed to prevent risk of avoidable harm.’

Some major concerns were:

• Medicines were not always managed safely
• Staff did not always ensure that people’s informed consent was obtained before providing care and treatment
• Mental capacity assessments were not always carried out correctly
• Incidents were not always investigated without delay
• Incidents were not always reported to the local authority when required
• Residents and their relatives were not always involved in assessments of their needs
• Care records did not always accurately reflect people’s needs.

The manager also did not have effective oversight of all staff recruitment, training and competency.

A spokesperson for the care home said the organisation takes the findings of the report ‘extremely seriously’ and
has taken ‘a number of significant steps to strengthen standards.’

For example, it is completing a full health and safety review of the premises and additional training has also been rolled out across colleagues and managers.

Further, it has updated residents’ care plans and brought in measures to make sure staff stick to these.

“The safety and wellbeing of the people who live with us is always our absolute priority, and we regret that we have not consistently met the high standards rightly expected of us,” the spokesperson said.

“While much work is being done, at the time of inspection it was noted that ‘Most people and their relatives were positive about the quality of care and support they received’, telling inspectors that ‘staff treated them with kindness’ and they ‘felt safe.’

“We are determined to continue to build on this foundation, learn from this report, and ensure that all aspects of our care consistently reflect the safety, dignity, and quality that those in our care and their families rightly expect.”

The spokesperson added that the person who was presenting the specific safety concerns that sparked the inspection has since been discharged to a specialist care setting.