Care home to close after further inadequate CQC rating

A care home in the London borough of Havering is to close after being rated Inadequate overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Alton House, in Hornchurch, was rated Inadequate for being safe and well-led. It was rated Requires Improvement for being caring, effective and responsive, following the inspection in January 2020. Alton House leadership has now made the decision to move all residents out of the service. They have been supported by the local authority commissioning team to ensure suitable alternative placements have been identified for people.

Alton House is a care home, providing accommodation and support for up to 23 older adults including people who may have a diagnosis of dementia. At the time CQC inspected, there were 15 people living at the service.

Inspectors found risk assessments and the management of medicines were inadequate and did not support staff to ensure people received safe care and told CQC they felt safe; however, the systems in place did not always protect people from abuse and harm.

Staff did not receive an adequate induction or relevant up to date training to ensure they could provide effective care. People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. People were not always treated in a kind and dignified manner.

Alton House has been in Special Measures since 15 October 2018. During this inspection the provider did not demonstrate that improvements have been made.

CQC found for one resident, many parts of their care file had not been updated in 14-15 months. Specifically, risk assessments for 'sight, hearing and communication', 'personal care' and 'skin' had not been updated since November 2018.

Some staff members were not competency assessed and had not received training to handle medicines. Records confirmed that four staff members had not completed medicines training and eight staff members had not had their competency to administer medicines assessed.

Alison Murray, CQC’s Head of Adult Social Care inspection in London said: “It is always sad when a provider decides to close a service, it is paramount that people get good quality care and that was not happening at Alton House. Everybody who was living at Alton House has now moved out and we wish them well in their now homes.”

You can read the report in full when it is published on CQC’s website at:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-6326493716