Norwich care home downgraded by Care Quality Commission

Despite rating the home inadequate, inspectors observed staff who interacted with people in a respectful and kind manner

A home for people with learning difficulties and autism, in which one resident was fed mainly crisps for nine days, has been downgraded to inadequate by health inspectors.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) gave the rating to Harvey Lane in Norwich, and placed it in special measures "to protect people from harm".

It followed an unannounced inspection in November.

Consensus Support Services, which runs the home, apologised.

The inadequate rating places the care home, previously rated good, in special measures, which will see it kept under close review.

'Not safe or dignified'

Rebecca Bauer's, CQC's director for people with a learning disability and autistic people, said, inspectors found "poor leadership and inadequate safety measures which were putting people at unnecessary risk".

She said: "It was worrying that people's basic needs weren't being met, in areas like supporting them to eat well.

"In one case, we saw that someone's food records showed they'd mainly eaten crisps for nine days and hadn't had any protein."

The health watchdog also deemed the home to be unclean, and no registered manager was in place at the time of inspection.

Harvey Lane "wasn't a safe or dignified place for people to live", said Ms Bauers.

"The leaders weren't supporting staff to empower people to do things on their own, and they hadn't put good systems in place to make sure people's voices were heard," she said.

Local authority professionals had also pointed out concerns about the service to the provider earlier this year.

However, residents and relatives told inspectors they felt staff were kind and caring, and inspectors observed staff who interacted with people in a respectful and kind manner.

Responding, Consensus Support Services said: "Nothing is more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of the people we support and we take feedback from the CQC extremely seriously.

"It is clear that, in this case, we have not met the standards that the people we support and their families expect and deserve from us, and we would like to again apologise to them.

"We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that improvements made are embedded and lessons are learnt so that we can provide the highest standards of safe, responsible, and person-centred support."