A BANBURY care home has been told to improve by the Car e Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced inspection in June.

Glebefields Care Home in Stratford Road was rated as requires improvement by CQC inspectors who levelled a number of criticisms at the home and its management.

The service, which cares for 39 elderly residents, was rated requires improvement in four out of five inspection measures (safe, effective, responsive and well-led), however inspectors rated the caring measure as good.

The home had previously been rated good following its last inspection in 2016.

According to the inspectors' report staff did not always apply the principles of the Mental Care Act when looking after residents in the home, while systems to monitor call bell response times were inadequate.

Inspectors also said there was insufficient staff to meet people's needs with both residents and staff members commenting on the staffing levels.

One resident told the inspector: "I am sometimes left waiting for help".

While a second said: "I call for staff and they don't come. There are not enough staff though

I'm told they are fully staffed."

While a staff member told inspectors outright: "There is not enough staff."

Despite the low staffing levels, residents told inspectors they felt safe and benefited from 'caring relationships with the staff'.

The management team at the home, however, were criticised by the CQC, however, who said the quality monitoring system had not identified the concerns relating to the call bell system, staffing levels, inappropriate consent or illegible records.

Accidents and incidents were not always properly investigated, according to the report, with inspectors identifying 49 incidents and accidents that had been reported by staff which had not been investigated and reviewed by the home manager within the set timescale.

The CQC has told the home to improve staffing levels and its systems to monitor the quality of service, which at the time of the inspection were both in breach of the Health and Social Care Act.

A spokesman for Care home firm, Brighter Kind which runs Glebefields said: “People told the inspectors that they enjoyed living at Glebefields and were very complimentary about the staff who they said were kind, caring and compassionate. The inspectors saw that residents benefitted from relationships with staff who understood their individual needs and were friendly and polite and treated them with dignity and respect.

“The care team had the appropriate skills and knowledge to carry out their roles and responsibilities and they understood how to keep people safe and to meet their care needs.

“The home was rated as good for being caring. Although no aspect of the service was rated as inadequate, we recognise that improvements were required to bring it to the standards that we expect to provide. Since the inspection, which took place in June, we have been carrying out a comprehensive improvement programme.”