Care home rated inadequate after injury incident

The home's rating for the areas of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led is now inadequate

A Kent care home has been placed into special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which inspected after being notified that a service user had sustained a serious injury.

Lavender Fields Care Home in Sevenoaks, which provides personal care for older people and those living with dementia, was inspected between 18 June and 8 July.

The facility is now rated "inadequate" for the areas of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

A spokesperson for Lavender Fields said "substantive steps" had already been taken to improve performance, and that they fully accepted the CQC's findings.

Serena Coleman, CQC's deputy director for Kent, said inspectors "found a service where people were not receiving the safe and dignified care" they had the right to expect.

She said: "People told us that while individual staff were kind, the constant use of agency workers and lack of stable management meant they rarely received consistent care.

"Staff were often placed in situations where they were expected to make complex decisions without the right support, training or guidance. This left both staff and residents vulnerable."

Inspectors found that leaders failed to monitor and act on serious safety concerns, leading to repeated falls and injuries, with managers failing to make safeguarding referrals when safety concerns were raised.

The CQC said that there was no registered manager at the care home for over 600 days, though the new manager had started to foster a more positive working environment among staff.

A spokesperson for Lavender Fields said: "Substantive steps have already been taken, and a new management team is in place working closely with the CQC and our local partners to ensure progress is made quickly while embedding long-term, sustainable changes."

They said like many care providers, they had faced "pressures including staffing challenges and other operational issues" which had affected performance, but they took "full responsibility for our care in Sevenoaks".

"The standards we have provided have not been good enough, and we are confident we can make the necessary improvements and avoid further regulatory action," the spokesperson said.