The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Clarendon Beechlands in Leicester, inadequate and placed it in special measures following an inspection in January.
This unannounced inspection was prompted by a review of the information held about this service since the last inspection.
Clarendon Beechlands, run by Prime Life Limited, is a care home which provides personal care for up to eighteen people with a learning disability, people living with autism, people with a mental health condition and younger adults.
Following this inspection, the care home’s overall rating has dropped from good to inadequate. Ratings for how safe and well-led the home is, have also dropped from good to inadequate. The ratings for how effective, caring and responsive the service is have fallen from good to requires improvement.
The service is now in special measures which means it will be kept under close review by CQC and re-inspected to check on the progress of improvements.
Rebecca Bauers, CQC’s director for people with a learning disability and autistic people said:
“During our inspection of Clarendon Beechlands, we found people weren’t safe and were at risk of avoidable harm. It was concerning that people weren’t protected from the risk of abuse and poor treatment or helped to have maximum choice and control of their lives.
“It’s unacceptable for people using this service to experience poor standards of care. People should be safe and be treated with dignity and respect. The leaders in this service were allowing a culture to exist where people weren’t being given the opportunity to lead their best lives.
“We found leaders weren’t effectively assessing safety and quality, or making improvements to protect people, so didn’t have a grasp on the issues facing them.
“There was a shortage of staff at the care home, and existing staff didn’t always have the necessary training to be able to carry out their role and provide a high standard of care.
“We found people weren’t always protected from abuse and improper treatment. One person had suffered a decline in their mental health and placed themselves at risk of harm. Restrictions were imposed on the person, however an application to have this restriction added to the provider’s legal authority hadn’t been submitted. This meant the person was deprived of their liberty without the correct authorisation.
“There were areas of the home which weren’t clean, and our inspectors found mould growing in some en-suite wet rooms. This placed people at risk of inhaling mould spores which could make them unwell.
"The decline in these standards isn’t good enough and we’ve told the provider and management team at Clarendon Beechlands what they must do to improve, as nobody should ever have to live in a service which is dirty and unsafe.
"We’ve placed the home in special measures, and will be keeping it under close review. We are also working closely with the local authority to ensure people are receiving safe care.
“We will not hesitate to take further action if we do not see significant improvement. Even if this results in the CQC taking action which results in the closure of the service."
Findings from the report include:
- People were not protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm as staff were not aware of their responsibilities to prevent, identify, and report it
- The provider and manager were unaware of all the issues of concern within the service
- Care plans did not always reflect best practice guidance for staff to follow
- Staff were not competent in all areas of care delivery
- There were not enough staff trained in medicines, meaning people didn’t always receive their medications in a timely way.