A care home has been deemed ‘inadequate’ and told to improve after consecutive damning inspections, a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) shows. 

Berkshire Care Home on Barkham Road has been under ‘special measures’ since December 2021 after CQC found that the service was performing badly in this area - requiring enforcement action to be taken against the provider. 

The service was previously reported as ‘inadequate’ after nine breaches of regulations were found during the inspection. 

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The latest CQC report from April states that the care home has “demonstrated progress in some areas;” however, further improvements were deemed necessary as it is still in breach of some regulations. 

As well as effectiveness, the care home, which provides support for 58 elderly people – some of whom have dementia, was also measured against whether its services were safe, caring, responsive and well-led. 

The overall result of the latest inspection was ‘requiring improvement’.

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The unannounced site visits reviewed a range of documents, including care records, staff personnel files and all medicines administration records, as well as the homes policies and procedures. 

The most damning part of the report stated that the home had 'not made any improvements to the premises to meet the needs of people living with dementia'.

Mental capacity assessments were not always completed fully or effectively and there were instances where staff did not support residents 'in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests'. The report states that the policies and systems in place did not support this practice. 

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Inspectors also found that not all staff had completed mandatory training, mitigation of risks were not always satisfactory, recruitment files did not always contain all the information required and, whilst incidents were logged, there were inconsistencies in recording and following them up. 

Berkshire Care Homes will remain under ‘special measures’ and given an action plan to follow - before another inspection within six months to assess its progress. 

If no considerable progress has been made in the underperforming services, the CQC will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. 

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A spokesperson for Four Seasons, which owns Berkshire Care Home, said: “We regret that The Berkshire remains below the standards that the CQC requires and that we expect. We are pleased that the inspector noted the progress we have made but recognise that there were areas that continue to need improvement.  

“Following the most recent inspection in April, we continue to take action to rectify this. The safety and wellbeing of everyone in our homes remains our first priority.”