A CARE home has fallen short of required standards for the second time running.

The Berkshire Care Home in Wokingham fell short in a number of areas following its most recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessment, despite showing improvements in others.

The home was recently cleared by Thames Valley Police and the CQC following an accusation of neglect within the operation.

An unannounced CQC inspection took place on November 27, 28 and 29 and found that the service did not have a registered manager – a fundamental requirement of the law.

It was noted however, that the newly-appointed home manager was ‘in the process of applying to register with the CQC’.

Not all staff had up-to-date training and the service was not always effective, inspectors said. At times, the home was not considered safe, as staff did not always store equipment properly, and maintenance check records were not all in place.

The medicines on the premises were all stored, recorded and handled properly.The management team was also criticised by inspectors, who said that the service ‘was not always well led’.

Notifications were not submitted to the CQC when certain incidents or events had taken place, they found.

Despite the criticism, there were areas where the home was commended, such as the caring attitude of the staff.

Residents and their relatives said they found the staff to be ‘extremely friendly’ and said that residents’ privacy and dignity were respected.

The service was also deemed responsive with the staff consistently monitoring and responding to residents’ changing health needs accordingly.

There are efficient treatment plans in place that were detailed and described daily routines specific to each person.

In response to the report, A Berkshire Care Home spokesman said: “The CQC rated the Berkshire Care Home as good for being caring and good for being responsive to the needs of people living in the home.

"Residents and their families said that in general they were happy with the care provision and had seen a lot of improvements.

"The CQC inspectors acknowledged that when the inspection took place last November the home manager, who had recently taken up post, had identified areas for improvements and had planned and already booked training programmes to bring all staff up to date and to support their professional development.

“The inspectors found some aspects of record-keeping required improvements and these were addressed immediately.”