Ollerton care home 'requires improvement' following latest Care Quality Commission inspection

Pathfinders Neurological Care Centre, on Darwin Drive, provides personal and nursing care, supporting to people over the age of 18, including those living with physical disabilities and mental health conditions.

At the time of the assessment, at the start of August, the service was supporting 58 people with their personal care needs.

On it’s previous inspection, back in November 2020, the home was rated ‘good’.

For this latest inspection, the CQC assessed the home against the ‘right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether it guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

In the categories of effective, responsive and caring, the home was still rated ‘good’.

But in the categories of safe and well-led, it was rated as ‘requires improvement’ which was also the overall rating.

In their report, CQC inspectors said: “We found breaches of the legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment, person centred care, staffing, infection prevention and control (IPC) medicines management and governance which included consent to care and treatment.

"Care plans lacked specific detail and guidance for staff about people’s individual health conditions and the level of support they needed.

"Incidents and accidents were not always recorded and followed up to ensure risks to people were mitigated.

"Medicines were not always managed or stored safely.

"IPC within the home was not to a safe and consistent level, people’s rooms needed deep cleaning and equipment such as wheelchairs were visibly dirty.

“People and relatives we spoke with consistently told us they were not routinely included in their care planning and reviews.

"People raised concerns about staffing levels and staffs’ level of training and knowledge.

"While most people told us they did not feel unsafe, some people said they experienced extended wait times for support when pressing their call bell and this was more prevalent in the evenings and at weekends.

"Some people told us that they struggled to get support to go out into the community because of staffing levels.

“Most people said staff treated them with kindness and compassion and we observed staff supporting people with person-centred care and taking time to socialise and engage with people in communal areas.

"We saw people in communal areas being offered choice and staff supporting people to make decisions if needed.”

In statement, Pathfinders Neurological Care Centre, said: We welcome the recent inspection from the CQC and are committed to working constructively with all stakeholders, including the CQC, Nottinghamshire Council and the Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (NICB), to address the recommendations made.

"The inspection recognised many strengths in our service, rating us ‘good’ in caring, effective and responsive.

"Two domains, safe and well-led, were rated as ‘requires improvement’.

"While we respect the findings, we believe that in some areas the report does not fully reflect the high quality of care delivered across our service or the positive outcomes achieved for the people we support.

"Some of the complex systems in place were not fully captured in the inspection process, and we have provided further context where appropriate.

"What is most important is that we are taking every recommendation seriously and are already making measurable progress.

"Our improvement plan is underway and we are confident that we will be ready for re-inspection within the next 12 weeks.

"We also wish to highlight that a separate inspection by the NICB on September 15 raised no concerns and recognised clear progress, offering an additional perspective alongside the CQC’s findings.

"Our priority remains the wellbeing, safety and quality of care for the people we support.

"With the dedication of our staff and the ongoing positive feedback from patients, families and key stakeholders, we remain fully committed to achieving excellence across all areas of our service.”