Oakwood Care Centre is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Oakwood Care Centre is situated in Stalybridge, Tameside. The home is registered with CQC for up to 18 people and at the time of the inspection provided care, support and accommodation to 12 people who required personal care without nursing.

We last carried out a comprehensive inspection of this service on 14, 18 and 22 December 2017. At that inspection we found eight breaches of the Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The breaches related to safe care and treatment; person-centred care; dignity and respect; consent to care; safeguarding service-users from abuse and improper treatment; receiving and acting on complaints; staffing; fit and proper person employed; and good governance. The service was given an overall rating of 'Inadequate’ and remained in special measures. At this inspection we looked to see if the required improvements had been made. We found that appropriate action had been taken to address the breaches we found at the last inspection and any concerns we found during this inspection were addressed during the inspection. However, we found that more work is required by the provider to ensure the robustness of governance systems to identify issues and ensure timely resolution and sustainability of improvements made. The overall rating for the service at this inspection is ‘Requires Improvement’.

The Service was working closely with the Local Authority Quality Improvement team and the staff and management team were committed to driving improvement. At the time of inspection, the team had already made a positive impact upon the running of the home.

At the time of the inspection the manager had submitted an application with the CQC to become the registered manager for Oakwood Care Centre and this was being processed. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The service had processes in place to manage risks within the home. However appropriate action was not always taken to address these issues. We recommend that the provider review the procedures in place to ensure risk is identified and safely managed.

The recruitment processes were not sufficiently robust to protect people from the risk of staff who are unsuitable to work with vulnerable people. One member of staff had begun working for the service prior to information being received from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). We recommend that the provider review the systems in place for the safe recruitment of staff.

The service had an overview of staff training. Staff were receiving relevant training, competency checks and supervision. However, there were not always staff on duty during the night who could administer ‘when required’ medicines such as pain relief. We recommend the procedures for the safe management of people’s medicines is reviewed to ensure the effectiveness of peoples medicines are optimised through following the recommended guidelines.

The service was maintaining a record of accident and incidents and analysing this information to reduce the potential for reoccurrences.

People could choose what they wanted to eat and the cook knew people, their preferences and nutritional needs well.

The requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 were being met. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support

We carried out an unannounced inspection of Oakwood Care Centre on 14 December 2017 and undertook announced visits on 18 and 22 December 2017.

Oakwood Care Centre is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Oakwood Care Centre is situated in Stalybridge, Tameside. The home is registered with CQC for up to 18 people and at the time of the inspection provided care, support and accommodation to 15 people who required personal care without nursing.

The home is a two storey detached building providing bedrooms and lounge/ dining area on each floor. Communal bathrooms and toilet facilities are available throughout the home. The kitchen is at the rear of the building. The home has a laundry and boiler room located in the basement.

The home was last inspected on 09, 10 and 11 January 2017 when we rated the home as inadequate overall and identified nine breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These were in relation to; person-centred care, need for consent, safe care and treatment safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, receiving and acting on complaints, good governance, staffing, fit and proper persons employed and notifications of other incidents.

The overall rating for the service was ‘inadequate’ and the home was placed in to special measures.

Services in special measures are kept under review and, if we have not taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider's registration of the service, are inspected again within six months. The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe. If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. For adult social care services the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we re-inspect it and is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

Following the last inspection, we issued warning notices for safe care and treatment and good governance which identified a timeframe that the service needed to be compliant with the regulations by. We also asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve all five of the key questions (safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led). We also met with the registered provider to discuss the inspection findings and the requirement to improve the overall quality of the care provided at Oakwood Care Centre to at least a rating of ‘Good’.

During this latest inspection we found the necessary improvements had not been made and there were continued systemic failures across the home. The overall rating for this inspection is inadequate which means the service will remain in special measures. You can see what action we told the registered provider to take at the back of the full version of the report. Full information about CQC's regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspection is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

At the start of the inspection, the service had a registered manager in place who had registered with CQC in October 2017. However, whilst the inspection was underway they were in the process of working their notice and subsequently completed their notice period on 18 December 2017. Following the inspection, CQC received the registered manager’s application to de-register from the service. A

We inspected Oakwood Care Centre on 9, 10, 11 January 2017 and our visit was unannounced on day one.

This was the service’s first inspection since their registration as a new provider with the commission on 30 September 2015.

Oakwood Care Centre is situated in the Stalybridge area of Tameside. The home provides care, support and accommodation for up to 18 people who require personal care without nursing.

The home is a two storey detached building providing bedrooms, a lounge and small attached dining area on each floor. Communal bathrooms and toilet facilities are available throughout the home. The kitchen is at the rear of the building. The home has a separate laundry area and boiler room located in the cellar.

At the time of our inspection there were 15 people living at Oakwood Care Centre.

The service did not have a manager in place who was registered with CQC. A home manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The service had a newly appointed home manager who had been in post for four days at the time of our inspection.

We identified multiple breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full report. Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to any concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

We made one recommendation around making the home’s interior decoration more conducive to people living with dementia.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring. People and their relatives told us they felt people living at the home were well cared for.

Care plans were in place and included information around people’s history, likes and dislikes. However, we found that people, or their representatives, were not regularly involved in deciding or reviewing how their care needs would be met.

We found some people’s documentation to consent to care and treatment had been signed by staff or relatives, who did not have the legal right to provide this consent.

We looked at the safe management and administration of medicines and found medication was not stored correctly and we found minor discrepancies and omissions in medication administration. However, no-one was placed at risk of harm.

Documentation at the home showed us that people received appropriate input from health care professionals, such as district nursing and their general practitioner (GP), to ensure they received the care and support they needed.

One staff member we spoke with understood how to safeguard people and was able to demonstrate their knowledge around safeguarding procedures and how to inform the relevant authorities if they suspected anyone was at risk from harm. However, another staff member we spoke with had not received training and could not demonstrate an understanding of safeguarding adults and the legal safeguards around people’s mental capacity and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

During our initial tour of Oakwood Care Centre on the first morning of our inspection, we noted that some areas of the home required cosmetic refurbishment and we identified issues with cleanliness and infection control in a number of areas of the building.

We found that people could not easily call for assistance; a number of call bells in people’s bedrooms were not working and call bells in communal areas were not easily accessible. Therefore, people were not always able to call for assistance when required.

Safety and maintenance checks for building and equipment safety were not in place and we found some necessary safety checks, such as electrical testin