Call for urgent improvements at Kirkby-in-Ashfield care home

The care home is located off a road in Kirkby-in-Ashfield

A care home has been told to make urgent improvements after inspectors found people were at risk of absconding and witnessed verbal abuse from staff.

Richmond Lodge, in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspection was to check on the progress of the home, which the CQC has previously rated as inadequate.

Blue Sky Care Limited, which runs the home, said it was disappointed with the regulators' assessment.

The inspection took place in February at the home, which is in special measures.

It provides care for up to five people with a learning disability and, at the time of the inspection, four people were living there.

'Unacceptable'

Rebecca Bauers, the CQC's director for people with a learning disability and autistic people said: "When we inspected Richmond Lodge, we were very concerned to find the provider still didn't have effective systems in place or enough oversight to ensure it was delivering high quality care.

"Also, the provider hadn't addressed our previous concerns raised at the last inspection, and new issues were found which meant people weren't safe and at risk of avoidable harm.

"It's unacceptable for people using this service to experience poor standards of care.

"People should be safe and treated with dignity and respect.

"The leaders in this service were allowing a culture to exist where people weren't given the opportunity to live fulfilled and meaningful lives.

"For example, people weren't always given a choice in how they would like to spend their time. Someone who had been assessed as needing one-to-one support was provided with this by accompanying staff to the tip; there was no evidence to support this was what the person had chosen to do."

The inspectors also found water temperatures were not monitored appropriately and staff had failed to take any action when water exceeded safe temperatures, increasing the risk of scalding.

They also said some people were at risk of absconding.

"The gate and all doors were left unlocked throughout our visits, which placed people at risk of harm and must be addressed as a matter of urgency," Ms Bauers said.

She also criticised the home's "closed culture".

"Staff failed to recognise some incidents as being abuse," she said.

"For example, we observed an incident where staff spoke to someone in an inappropriate manner which caused the person to become distressed, however staff failed to recognise this as abuse."

'Long journey'

"Also, we reviewed an incident where someone was becoming distressed, staff failed to act which resulted in another person being hurt," she added.

"Staff failed to recognise this as a safeguarding incident which placed people at risk."

The CQC said the home would remain in special measures, meaning it would be kept under close review.

It added it was working with the local authority to mitigate risks to people.

"We will not hesitate to take further action if we don't see significant improvement, even if this results in... the closure of the home," Ms Bauers added.

Nottinghamshire County Council said it was working closely with the CQC and completing regular visits to the service and working with the provider to maintain the safety of people living there.

Richard Miller, managing director of Blue Sky Care Limited, said: "As an organisation, we are significantly disappointed by the external regulators' assessment.

"As a service, we have invested within the areas of record keeping, support planning, community access, communication and risk management.

"For a service previously rated as good, we have worked to return it to this rating and this is a journey that is taking a longer period than hoped.

"We respect the assessment and will work in partnership with the commission, our local authority but most importantly the people we support, their families and the staff team to achieve our goal."