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Failings at North Yorks Care Home.

A nursing home in the Yorkshire Dales has been told by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that it must make improvements or face enforcement action.

Anley Hall Nursing Home, Skipton Road, Settle, North Yorks,  was told after an unannounced inspection in November 2014 that it was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led.

Inspectors also found that failings identified on an inspection in June 2014 had not been put right by the service provider, Mr Malcolm Haigh.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are given a rating to help people choose care. Overall, Anley Hall Nursing Home was rated  Inadequate.

Although some residents and their relatives spoke positively about the care, inspectors identified several areas where improvements were still needed including:

  • Care and treatment was not planned and delivered in a way that ensured people's safety and welfare. Care plans were incomplete and did not always reflect people’s personal preferences.
  • Records and assessments lacked details which would enable staff to deliver safe appropriate care.
  • The provider did not have an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service residents received.
  • Inspectors found that there was a large reliance on agency staff to cover staff absence and vacancies which meant that people were not receiving consistent care.
  • Residents’ nutritional needs were not always being met and inspectors were concerned that, where people had lost weight, little or no action had been taken to address this.
  • There had been a significant number of safeguarding referrals to the local authority.

As a result of these findings, CQC is currently considering the need for further regulatory action and has said it will report in due course on any action they do decide to take.

Deputy chief inspector of adult social care in the north, Debbie Westhead,  said: “We found that the care provided at Anley Hall Nursing Home fell a long way short of what we require. We have told the home that action must be taken to resolve the issues we identified.

“While we did see some caring interactions between staff and people living in the home, and that in some ways people were well supported, the safety issues we identified needed urgent attention.

“We have made it clear that we will return to the home to check that the necessary improvements have been made. If not - we will take further action to make sure that people living there receive care which is safe, effective, caring and responsive to their needs.”