A CARE home in Boscombe has been found to require improvements after a recent report by the Care Quality Commission said that some aspects of their service was “not always safe”.

The Fairways Residential Care Home on Owl Road was leased to local authority owned Tricuro back in October 2019.

However, a report published by the CQC on Friday November 20 found that shortfalls in care provided by the home, namely that Fairways had been able to operate for over a year without a registered manager.

The report said: “The service was not meeting their regulatory requirements as they had not had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission since October 17, 2019.

“A registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

“The current manager had been in post since December 2019 and was in the process of submitting a registered manager application to CQC.”

Whilst Fairways was rated ‘good’ for their effectiveness of their care, treatment of clients and meeting people’s needs, but have been found to require improvements in safety and leadership at the 70-bed home.

The report mentions that there was a “high reporting of safeguarding concerns” and “recruitment checks had not been carried out in line with best practice”.

Feedback from families in a satisfaction survey also found “improvements were needed in communication” as regular meetings had not been able to take place due to current Covid-19 restrictions.

Yet, the care home said that plans are now being put in place to setting up interactive meetings between clients and relatives.

A statement in the report said: “Due to high reporting of safeguarding concerns the local authority were working with Fairways to ensure people were safe and to support improvements in practice.

“Recruitment checks had not been carried out in line with best practice which meant people may be at risk of being supported by staff not suitable to work in a care setting.

“New staff had a criminal record check in place but did not always have two references available.”

Tricuro, which delivers services for BCP Councils, have said that a new manager was due to be appointed last year but delays with registration forms meant that the confirmation had not come through.

The care home provider have confirmed that the issues are to be resolved swiftly.

A spokesman from Tricuro said: “The home was transferred to Tricuro in 2019. We appointed a new manager and there was a delay in having their registration approved which is regrettable as the standard of care and safety is assessed as good.

“This situation is now being rectified.

"We have been working in collaboration with our council colleagues and safeguarding team to address any concerns from that time, and have invested in improvements in quality and safeguarding practice which have recently been commented on positively by the council run safeguarding team.

"The other areas have all been addressed."