No one should
Daughter warns of ‘ticking time
THE council has been forced to pay compensation after the death of a woman who suffered appalling indignity and ill-treatment at one Rochdale care home before being badly failed by another.
Hilda England raised seven children while working at the town’s Mutual Mills and later Hanson’s Bakery.
Heywood born and bred she remained highly active after she retired - becoming chairwoman of the townswoman’s guild, and getting involved with drama and church groups.
But in her final years she suffered appalling indignity and ill-treatment at one Rochdale care home before being badly failed by another.
First she was subjected to psychological and emotional abuse at Beechwood Lodge in Meadow View, Norden, where the manager ‘tapped’ her nose and interrogated her while she sat naked on the toilet.
The great-grandmother then moved to Springfield Park Nursing Home, where staff would fail to urgently call her an ambulance despite the fact she had suffered a fit and was being sick.
Less than two weeks later she died in hospital from aspiration pneumonia, having ‘likely’ inhaled her own vomit while at Springfield Park, according to an ombudsman’s report.
She was 94 years old and had been suffering from cerebral atrophy - a brain condition that causes fits which manifest as a vacant appearance, paralysis and an inability to respond.
Her devoted family has had complaints about both homes upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) - which ordered Rochdale council to pay compensation.
They have now raised serious concerns to the Local Democracy Reporting Service over the way elderly people are looked after in the borough.
Ann Cooney, Mrs England’s youngest daughter, claims that some care homes are ‘not safe’ and that the local authority is facing a ‘ticking time bomb’.
“I have worked in social care all my life, managing services - specifically safeguarding cases as well, so we are quite used to professional standards and processes. We are happy to follow that,” said Ann.
“We do believe that it’s a ticking time bomb - adults in care homes in Rochdale aren’t safe, processes aren’t safe.”
Although the two homes Mrs England stayed at are privately run, they were commissioned by Rochdale council - which is ultimately responsible for adult care in the borough.
Ann took her complaints about her mother’s care to the ombudsman as she was unhappy with the way the council had handled matters.
She raised safeguarding concerns about Beechwood Lodge with the council, but the authority later had to apologise that its investigation did ‘not meet best practice standard’.
According to the LGSCO report it should not have held a mediation meeting with the family and home while safeguarding enquiries were ongoing.
The council also failed to give the family accurate information about timescales and did not share information in a timely manner - resulting in delays.
In Ann’s experience “Rochdale MBC swept stuff under the carpet, they don’t do thorough investigations,” she said.
“We get sick and tired of listening to ‘lessons learned’, she said.
She believes the local authority needs to take some responsibility for their ‘incompetence’- both in terms of commissioning care homes and investigating complaints.
“They need to be transparent. Somebody needs to start taking a look at the councils and how they actually operate, because we feel they are not accountable to anybody,” Ann said.
Mrs England was still living a relatively independent life in sheltered accommodation at Cherwell Court before entering residential care.
But after a stroke brought on seizures she began to need the sort of round-theclock care her family was sadly no longer able to provide.
Mrs England became a resident at Beechwood Lodge, in Meadow View,
Norden, in May 2015.
And it was here in August and September 2016 that she suffered emotional and psychological abuse, according to investigations by both the council and LGSCO.
The investigations came after her daughter Ann raised safeguarding concerns over two incidents of alleged neglect. One on August 8 where a carer ‘forgot’ to help Mrs England to bed after she reported feeling unwell. And another on September 2, where no one was available to take her to the toilet, resulting in her soiling herself.
Even more disturbing was an incident on September 2, where the manager was reported to have come into bathroom while Mrs England was naked on the toilet ‘and kept poking her on the nose saying ‘what have you been saying about staff?’.
The council’s ‘lead assessor’ visited Mrs England on September 12 when, according to the LGSCO report, she ‘anxiously explained that she was scared that [the manager] might reprimand her if she said too much’.
However, at a later ‘unannounced’ visit, at which no family was present, Mrs England told the assessor she had not been abused but only ‘tapped gently on the nose to attract her attention’.
She reportedly said she did not want the manager sacked but wanted her to know that confronting her naked in the shower without her consent was unacceptable.
The exact date of this interview was not recorded, but was after the ‘mediation session’ between the family, council and home on September 28.
Because of her comments in this second interview, the allegation of physical abuse was ultimately found to be ‘inconclusive’ by the council, although the complaint psychological and emotional abuse was ‘substantiated’.
Mrs England’s family totally reject the finding that their mother was not physically abused.
“There’s no record of that interview, we’ve never seen it,” said Ann.
“He says Mum said wasn’t abuse.
“So he decided because Mum felt it wasn’t abuse - because [I believe] she was scared of speaking out, she had spoken out once they didn’t uphold it because of that. But we never ever saw the report.”
However, the council’s assessment that the allegation of neglect on August 8 was ‘inconclusive’ was found to be ‘flawed’ by the ombudsman, which also said there was ‘ no good reason’ for the authority’s enquiries to have taken eight months.
By the time a case conference - including the Care Quality Commission, council officers, Ann and two of her sisters and the home - was it held on March 17, 2017, further concerns had been raised by the family.
These included failure to manage Mrs England’s seizures properly, improper moving and handling and lack of staff to take care of toileting needs.
The family had also been put on ‘restricted visiting’ and Beechwood Lodge threatened to evict Mrs England.
The ombudsman’s report notes there had been a breakdown of trust between Mrs England’s family and the manager and this led to the threat of eviction which had been averted by a mediation session.
Ann went on to say that she believes ‘there was a culture at Beechwood Lodge that if you rocked the boat your parents would be evicted or you would be put on restricted visiting or your life would be made horrible’.
“It’s basic care - fed, dressed, bathed, medication, drink - that was all we were asking for and all we wanted, and a bit of dignity