Wellington House

This report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) provides an overview of Wellington House, a residential care home. The inspection focused on key areas of service delivery and identified some areas where improvements are needed to ensure consistent quality and safety for residents. Overall, the report highlights that while residents are happy living at the service and staff generally know how to support them, there are significant opportunities for development across several critical aspects of care.

Regarding safe care, the service had issues with incident recording and investigation, meaning potential safeguarding concerns were not always thoroughly reviewed. While there were enough staff overall, staffing levels sometimes fell below the required one-to-one support hours. A crucial area for improvement is ensuring that all equipment used for medication, such as blood glucose monitors, is properly calibrated.

In terms of effective care, the service needs to ensure that care plans are consistently up-to-date and that all staff are fully aware of their contents to support residents in making daily choices. There were missed opportunities to learn from incidents, with some not being fully recorded or investigated, which could increase the risk of recurrence.

The caring aspect of the service requires attention, as residents were not always treated with the utmost dignity and respect. Concerns were noted regarding the language used by some staff and instances where residents were not adequately supported with personal care needs like changing bedsheets, although positive interactions and respect for privacy were also observed.

Regarding how responsive the service is, people were supported to express their views and make decisions about their care, with preferences for personal care support being respected. However, the effectiveness of staff following care plans to facilitate these choices needs to be more consistent.

Finally, in relation to being well-led, the leadership identified some cultural issues, such as staff being in the office when they should be supporting residents or using mobile phones excessively, but these concerns had not been quickly resolved. There were also instances where incidents were not always shared with relevant external partners, and safeguarding incidents were not always reported to the CQC as required.