Three Shropshire care homes told to improve

The reports for Appledale Cottage near Ellesmere; Bennett House in Telford and Severn Cottage/Rose House in Ironbridge have now been made public.

They are among 75 care homes across the central region to be rated in the latest batch of inspection reports by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

All three have been given a "requires improvement" rating, one up from the worst possible "inadequate".

Inspection teams visited the homes between May and July and spoke to management, staff, residents and relatives as well as inspecting records.

At Appledale Cottage, inspectors claimed some staff had not had regular training.

However, inspectors were told people felt safe living in the home.

The report said: "The service lacked effective leadership and the manager was unaware of their responsibilities of ensuring people received a safe and effective service and there were no systems in place to drive improvements."

Managers said they did not wish to comment on the report.

At Bennett House, run by by Accord Housing Association Limited, inspectors found people's medicines were not managed safely and they said staff did not follow the provider's guidance in administration, storage and disposal of people's medicines.

However, the report said: "People were supported to maintain independence and control over their lives by staff who treated them with dignity and respect.

"Individual hobbies and interests were encouraged and social activities were available for people to choose from."

Maxine Espley, executive director of health, social care and support at the Accord Group, said: "Since the inspection in May, we have redeployed staff to sufficiently support customers during busy periods. We are also adding value by engaging volunteers that will complement the support care staff deliver during meal times.

"In addition, we are reinforcing our robust guidelines relating to medicine administration and practice.

"We would like to reassure customers that we remain committed to providing the highest levels of health and social care and we are confident that the service will continue to improve over the coming weeks and months."

At Severn Cottage/Rose House, run by HF Trust Limited, inspectors were told by residents that the staff were kind and caring.

But they said staff absences had sometimes impacted on the continuity of support people received.

David Hansen, regional director at HF Trust, said: "Overall we are pleased with the findings and that three out of five areas were rated 'good'.

"We accept that there are areas of improvement and are taking immediate action to address those areas of concern."

Sue Howard, deputy chief inspector for adult social care in the central region, said: "People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.

"Where we find that services are not good enough, we will give a rating of requires improvement or inadequate.

"If we find that a service requires improvement, we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue. We will share our findings with local commissioners, and we will return in due course to check that the required improvements have been made.