A CARE home for elderly people has been graded as ‘requires improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after failing to improve its standards. 

Arbory Residential Home, owned by Coate Water Care, in Andover Down, Andover was visited by the CQC in August. 

A report, published in October, said the residential home, which has 60 residents, ‘requires improvement’ and it was also told it 'remained in breach of regulations’. 

Inspectors visited because of concerns about the quality and safety of people’s care, the cleanliness of the home, and staffing levels. It was previously inspected in February when it was told to improve. 

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The CQC said: “We continued to find concerns about how some risks were assessed, monitored, and mitigated. There were still insufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people's needs at all times.

“The premises and equipment within it [the residential home] were still not well maintained.

“Improvements were needed to develop better partnership working with healthcare professionals to meet people's healthcare needs.

“People were not consistently receiving person-centred support and did not have access to meaningful activities on a regular basis.

“There was evidence local leaders were working hard to deliver improvements, however, many of the required improvements had been hindered by continued shortfalls in staff across all departments.”

Inspectors found that the provider "did not have effective systems and processes in place to assess, monitor and manage safety" leading to an "increased risk that people could be harmed".

The CQC said there was "insufficient improvement" since the report in February.

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The CQC also raised concerns about the number of staff and said the provider did not ensure that there were "sufficient numbers of staff" deployed to meet people’s needs.

Staff told inspectors: "If we had more staff, we could take care of the residents more" and "we need more staff". 

Inspectors did receive some positive comments from relatives who praised the attentiveness of staff and felt staffing levels had improved. 

However, the majority of relatives raised concerns, telling inspectors: "They are very short-staffed" and "They are lovely staff but there is not enough of them".

According to the report, the provider had "failed to do all that was reasonably practicable to ensure the premises were clean and hygienic to prevent the spread of infection". 

Residents told inspectors they felt safe living at the Arbory. 

One commented:  "Yes I like it, there is nothing wrong here."

The CQC also found "incidents and accidents were reported appropriately, escalated internally, and reviewed or investigated by a manager".

The CQC identified various continued breaches in relation to the suitability of the premises, consent, safe care, treatment, staffing and governance, with one new breach identified regarding person-centred care.

It has asked the provider to send an action plan to outline the improvements it will make in the areas of quality and safety.

The categories safe and effective were rated as ‘requires improvement’ whilst the well-led category was rated ‘inadequate’.

Arbory Residential Home and Coate Water Care have been asked for a comment.