Hepworth House

Updated 27 December 2024

Date of assessment 07 to 27 January 2025

Hepworth House is a care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 20

people, the service provides support to older people with a physical disability and people

living with dementia.

The service was in breach of 4 legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment,

safeguarding, good governance and person-centred care.

Systems were not established to enable the provider to review and act upon incidents,

accidents and adverse events. Safeguarding concerns were not escalated to the local

authority for independent review. Care plans and risk assessments were not person

centred and did not always have the necessary information to enable staff to provide safe

care. Topical medicines were not managed safely, and time critical medicines were not

always administered in a timely manner. Staff did not always have the knowledge and

skills to enable them to carry out their roles within the law. The provider did not work in

line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Governance systems were ineffective in driving

improvement in the service. However, staff were recruited safely, wore appropriate

personal protective equipment and responded promptly to people’s call bells.

In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against

a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/

or appeals have been concluded.

This service is being placed into special measures. The purpose of special measures is

to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements.

Special measures provide a framework within which we user our enforcement powers in

response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must

improve the quality of the care they provide.

Updated 27 December 2024

While the people we spoke to expressed that they were generally happy with their care, our

assessment found elements of care did not meet the expected standards.

People told us there were generally enough staff, however we found there were periods during

the day where people would be left with minimal engagement for periods of time. Not everybody

could tell us their experiences, where this was the case, we carried out structured observations.

When staff did interact with people, we observed this to be kind and positive. People and their

relatives told us they felt safe at Hepworth House. They told us the service was clean and to

their liking. People indicated they received choice and staff treated them well. One person said,

“I think staff understand my needs, they are nice people.” Another person told us, “There have

been a lot of changes here, it was run down before, its better now, all clean.”