CARE HOME ABUSE CLAIMS
WATCHDOG INTERVENES AND STAFF SUSPENDED AMID ALLEGATIONS
A care home flagged up to authorities following allegations of abuse is facing action from the health watchdog after inspectors found a series of failings.
Church Lane in Bearsted was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) last month to see if improvements had been made since the last examination, when it was placed into special measures. The body heard some members of staff had been suspended since then. At the time a damning report spoke of the “unacceptable attitude and culture of some staff” and noted pockets of poor practice remained. It continued: “Three days after we inspected we were made aware of another incident where staff had acted inappropriately towards a person they were supporting.” The home - which provides care for 20 adults with autism or learning disabilities - was deemed to be ‘inadequate’ in the categories of being safe, effective, caring and responsive, and ‘requires improvement’ in being well-led. Inspectors found a number of concerning issues, including evidence of people not being protected from abuse. Just the day before the CQC arrived on site, there had been an incident of violence between two people living at its Inglewood Unit, which was not reported to the manager. This in turn meant Kent County Council, the local authority, had not been informed and appropriate action was not taken in response.
The CQC report added: “After the inspection, we received new reports of allegations of abuse that had occurred since we inspected. “This evidenced the systems and processes in place to keep people safe were not working effectively.”
There was also no process to assess if staffing levels met people’s needs, but an operations director has now announced plans to implement a staffing dependency tool to check this.
Following the inspection, the CQC says it will be “taking action” against the service provider, though the nature of this action is not known at this time.
A KCC spokesman said the authority had been working closely with Church Lane to ensure residents’ safety. Church Lane declined our request to comment.