An Eccles care home is in ‘special measures’ after an inspection revealed safety concerns including one incident where a resident was threatened by another with a knife.
Barton Brook Care Home in Eccles has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in its most recent report published this week.
The residential home, which cares for up to 120 people at a time, fell from ‘requires improvement’ in May 2022, to ‘inadequate’ following inspections over three days in September and October of this year and is now in special measures pending a further visit.
The CQC report highlighted serious safety concerns, stating: “People had a range of risk assessments in place regarding their care, although we found some either weren’t in place, or weren’t followed by staff. For example, where one person had threatened another with a knife.
“Where people were at risk of absconding, staff were to provide re-assurance and distractions, although this wasn’t followed.
“Staff also voiced their concerns to us about staffing levels at the home. One member of staff said, “Staffing levels on this unit are atrocious.”
Inspectors also slammed the appearance of the care home, describing some rooms as ‘unhomely’.
“The external grounds of the home were not well maintained, with lots of stray litter scattered around and overgrown grass,” the report added. “There were a
number of instances where people’s dignity was compromised where staff did not always respond accordingly.”
The inspection came following concerns raised to the CQC about the service including ‘staffing, safeguarding, falls management and leadership’.
The care home is marked on five scores which are: safety, effectiveness, responsiveness, leadership and how caring it is.
Of these five scores, Barton Brook was marked as ‘inadequate’ for leadership and safety whilst scoring ‘requires improvement’ for the effectiveness, responsiveness and caring categories.
Inspectors found ‘significant shortfalls in in service leadership’ adding that leaders and the culture they created ‘did not assure the delivery of high-quality care.’
The care home, which is owned by Ultimate Care Limited, has had five different managers since the last inspection. There was not a registered manager at the time of inspection.
As it has been placed in special measures, the care home will now have to make significant improvements or face possible closure.
The CQC report said: “We will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.
“If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures.
“This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.
“For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months.”
Ultimate Care Limited has two other homes in Yorkshire and one in Humberside, all rated as requires improvements.
In a statement responding to the CQC report, Bernie Suresparan, Chief Executive Officer at We Care Group, said:
“We are disappointed and saddened by the findings within the report, which we take very seriously. We would like to apologise to residents, family members and the local community, that the standards in the home have fallen below those expected within the We Care Group.
“Since the inspection we have put a robust action plan in place, to make the necessary improvements identified in the report, introduced new systems and have appointed a new manager.”
The report for the care home can be found here.
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