Care home residents were 'at risk of harm' - CQC

A care home in Kent has been put in special measures by a health watchdog which said residents were "at risk of harm".

Shore Lodge in Dartford, which provides housing for those with autism or learning disabilities, was inspected in June by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

In a report published on Friday its overall running was found to be "inadequate".

CQC ruled that the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity-run home had not acted on three warning notices issued in March urging "immediate action" regarding its failings.

Areas such as effectiveness, responsiveness and caring had all been rated as "requiring improvement".

The watchdog's report stated that: "[Residents] continued to be at risk of harm and [Shore Lodge] had failed to investigate thoroughly and act on incidents and accidents."

Neither had there been "improvement in the level of support people were receiving", said the CQC.

Serena Coleman, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said: "Shore Lodge's leaders weren’t investigating incidents or taking action to learn from them and stop them happening again.

"Although they told us they had received training, staff weren’t always able to identify safeguarding incidents or feel comfortable raising concerns."

Ms Coleman cited an example of one person breaking a glass photo frame in their room during the night.

Despite night staff reporting the incident staff the next day discovered the glass hadn’t been removed and the person had received cuts.

"CQC also had to tell the registered manager to refer this incident to the local authority as they hadn’t done so," she added.

Ms Coleman called for “rapid and widespread improvements", meanwhile CQC would "continue to monitor closely Shore Lodge residents to keep them safe".

A spokesperson for Leonard Cheshire said it did not believe CQC's report "in any way reflects the situation at the service now and we have requested a return visit".

They added that the regulator had been updated fortnightly on "how the service had moved forward" since June and that the "safety and wellbeing of [residents] remains our ongoing priority".

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