Worthing Care Home Claims Watchdog Report Is Unfair—While Pledging Improvements

After The Shelley care home in Worthing received a downgraded rating from the official watchdog, its owners said they'd use the report to help make changes — but simultaneously claimed the assessment was unfair.

On Thursday (March 4), the Care Quality Commission said The Shelley "requires improvement".

It altered the establishment's rating which had previously been "outstanding" in July 2018.

The Shelley Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 32 people with a range of health and support needs, including Parkinson's disease and people living with dementia.

The official watchdog made an unannounced inspection on dates in November and December 2020, after receiving reports of concern, and found:

• People's risks were not fully assessed to protect them from the risk of avoidable harm.
• Medicines prescribed for people living with Parkinson's disease were not always administered in a timely manner. A medicines audit did not include details of how medicines that needed refrigeration had been monitored.
• The majority of staff had not received Parkinson's disease awareness training or training in the management of falls which would enable them to support people's needs appropriately.
• Auditing systems had not identified all the issues found during the inspection and were not effective in driving improvement to the care people received.
• The system used to monitor accidents did not correspond with records relating to accidents and incidents, including falls, that people had sustained.
• Infection prevention and control systems had been implemented and were effective, though further improvements could be made. 

As a result, the CQC's assessments of the home's approach to safety and being well-led were lowered.

However, inspectors also discovered:

• People were happy living at the home and felt safe. They were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives in the least restrictive way possible. Staff acted in the best interests of residents and the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
• Residents' meetings were held to share any concerns or to make suggestions about how the home was run. 
• Staff told CQC visitors that they enjoyed working at the home and felt supported by management.

After the report was released, a spokesperson for The Shelley reacted to the change of rating:

"The Shelley is very disappointed with the findings of the CQC report.

"We do not feel it is a fair reflection of the excellent care which our staff provide to our residents and everyone's hard work to have kept the home COVID free to date.

"However, we do take the findings of the report seriously and have already begun to implement changes to rectify the issues which were identified.

"We will be using this is report as a catalyst to make The Shelley even more Outstanding than it was before."

The CQC pledged to return to make a further inspection, after working with the care provider on the improvements.

They said:

"We have now asked the provider to produce an action plan outlining what steps will be taken to improve the standards of quality and safety.

"We will review this and work alongside them to monitor progress and ensure that improvements are made and fully embedded.

"We will then return to inspect the service at a later date."