St Mary’s Residential Care Home

“We found a lack of effective governance, oversight and monitoring of the service. Governance processes did not identify the issues which we found during this assessment.For example, not referring a person’s unexplained bruising to safeguarding, people using emollient cream did not all have a risk assessment,the use of stair gates on communal stairs were not risk assessed, the unsafe storage of gas cylinders in the service’s garden, and staff did not always seek medical advice following unwitnessed falls.This put people at risk of harm. We found no one had been harmed. Quality assurance systems and processes were not effectively implemented to ensure safety and drive change.These concerns constituted 1 breach in the regulation relating to good governance.”

“However, we found staff knew people well, spoke positively about their roles and felt supported by the leadership team. We observed staff being respectful and kind to people.”

“The provider had been working to improve the service with support from the local authority,and we saw changes had started to be made. The service did not have a manager in place at the beginning of our assessment;the new manager joined during our assessment.”

“The provider accepted feedback from this assessment and took immediate steps to affect change where required.”