Eleven Llandysul care home staff suspended from posts

Eleven staff at a residential home set to be closed by Ceredigion Council have been suspended from their posts.

The council said the move was to allow independent investigators to examine issues linked to protecting vulnerable adults.

Last week, the council confirmed that Llandysul's Awel Deg Residential Home would close due to "staffing problems".

One of the residents' daughters has criticised the council's handling of the closure.

The council intends to re-open the home as a dedicated dementia care centre.

Awel Deg has room for 26 residents but currently has only seven people there.

Inspectors criticised the home in May last year for not having a structured activities programme.

'Investigation'

The council, which runs the premises, intends to find somewhere else for the residents to live before the home closes in the next week.

The closure will lead to the start of a month-long redundancy consultation for the home's 29 full-time and 12 relief staff.

A council spokesman said it was likely the home would be closed for at least six months with the intention of re-opening it as a designated dementia centre.

He added: "Eleven staff have been temporarily suspended from their posts.

"This is a neutral measure to enable an independent investigation linked to protecting vulnerable adults to go ahead.

"The home will be closed for at least six months and is likely to re-open as a dedicated dementia care centre."

'Under-stimulated'

Ann Jones' mother who suffers from dementia has been a resident at the home since March last year and is being moved to another home.

Mrs Jones, said: "I am very unhappy about the way the council has handled the closure because residents' families were kept in the dark about it.

"I received a letter from the council in June last year stating there were concerns about some aspects of care at Awel Deg without expanding on those concerns.

"I heard nothing more from the council until I got a phone call last Thursday telling me the home was being closed. The council could have kept us better informed.

"I am also unhappy about the way the staff have been treated because as far as I'm concerned they were very good.

"The council need to tell us why some staff have been suspended."

A Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales report in May last year criticised the home because "there was no structured activities programme being provided to people residing at the home".

The report followed an inspection visit a month earlier.

The report added: "People were observed sitting in lounges with the television on and it was stated they were unable to see or hear it adequately.

"The impact for people using the service is that they are under-stimulated, uninterested and not fulfilled."

Responding to the concerns raised by Mrs Jones about her mother, a Ceredigion council spokesman said it acted to notify families "within 24 hours of the decision being made to close the home temporarily".

"The position hadn't changed from the family's perspective until a recent escalation of concerns and families were contacted within 24 hours," said the council official.

The spokesman added that "it is not appropriate to share at this stage the nature of the concerns" regarding the suspensions.