Care home in special measures for residents' safety

Stuart Dunn, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said "staff didn't always treat people with dignity and respect"

A care home for up to 50 people has been placed in special measures to protect the safety and welfare of people living there, a report has found.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Chase House Limited, Arlesey, Bedfordshire as inadequate following an inspection in January.

Chase House Limited is a residential care home which supports older people, those living with dementia, with a physical disability, as well as nursing and mental health support.

A spokesperson said: "Since the inspection, our management team has been actively implementing a comprehensive Service Improvement Plan to address all concerns and ensure the highest level of care for our residents."

Inspectors said they had to step in when they saw a person visibly unwell and bent over in their chair - and another told them they waited for up to 30 minutes for support.

They also found medicines were not managed safely and there were expired medicines in residents' rooms.

'Closed culture'

Staff did not engage meaningfully with people and many interactions were task-focused rather than person-centred, the report found.

Stuart Dunn, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said: "When we inspected Chase House Limited, we found poor leadership and a closed culture were behind many of the issues we saw across the service.

"Leaders didn't support staff to safeguard people from harm or provide people with the level of care they should be able to expect.

"We saw that leaders didn't make sure the home environment was safe in the most basic of ways including working fire exits, making sure windows didn't open so widely that people could fall out or ensuring taps weren't able to reach a scalding temperature."

The service has been placed in special measures which means the CQC will monitor it closely to keep people living there safe whilst improvements are made.

A spokesperson for Chase House Limited said it was "fully committed to continuous improvement" and had "already completed a significant portion" of its action plan.