Lancaster care home requires improvement

Scaleford Care Home on Lune Road was put into special measures last July following an inspection led by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A recent CQC inspection found the residential home still requires improvement but newly-appointed manager Karen Brown-Howse said Scaleford’s future is bright.

Karen Brown-House said: “In the last seven months I think we have done a great job, we have come quite far in a short amount of time and the future is looking a lot better thanks to the staff.

“We do still require improvement but we are not failing.”

The unannounced CQC inspection was carried out at the home over three days in January and found it requires improvement in safety, effectiveness, care, response and leadership.

The home, operated by Scaleford Care Home Limited, was previously rated inadequate following inspections in January, February and July last year.

The CQC also placed a condition on the provider’s registration to prevent any more residents being admitted to the home without the prior agreement of the commission – which has now been lifted.

During the inspection the commission found improvements had been made to ensure people who lived at the home were safe – with a decrease in the number of reported falls.

The inspection also found a cleaner had been appointed since the last visit, relinquishing staff of all cleaning duties.

But systems to monitor accidents were not consistent and systems for administering medication when it was needed were not always in place.

Staff were not consistently caring and incidents were reported to the manager.

Although staff training had taken place over the last six months the CQC found more is needed.

Activities at the home were reported to have no formal structure on a daily basis but staff were observed taking time out for one to one activities with residents.

The home currently has 15 members of staff and cares for a maximum of 32 people.

Karen Brown-Howse first started working at the home as a night carer in 1995 and is confident the team can get Scaleford to the CQC’s ‘Good’ rating in the future.

She said: “We have a long way to go but we have made a good start and at the moment our residents are happy here. We are looking towards the future to try and get us to a good standard.

“We are working closely with Lancashire County Council and the CQC to get to that rating. This profession is hard work but we are going to continue to be positive.”

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all of England’s adult social care services are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.