Kent care home in special measures
The Care Quality Commission has rated Ruth Lodge in Chatham inadequate
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Ruth Lodge in Chatham, Kent, inadequate, and placed it in special measures to protect people following an inspection in December.
Ruth Lodge is a residential care home, run by TKSD Care Homes & Training Ltd, providing accommodation and personal care for two people who have complex learning disabilities and autism.
The inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s usual checks on the safety and quality of services.
During this inspection, CQC found several concerns with the quality and safety of people’s care and identified six breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, dignity and respect, safeguarding, staffing and how leaders were managing the service.
As well as the service’s overall rating going down from requires improvement to inadequate, so have the ratings for being safe and well-led. On this occasion, CQC did not inspect how effective, caring and responsive the service was as this inspection focused on specific areas of concern, therefore these remain rated as good.
The service has been placed in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe whilst Ruth Lodge makes the improvements they have been told to. CQC is looking to use its regulatory powers further to protect people.
CQC deputy director in the south, Serena Coleman, said: “When we inspected Ruth Lodge, we were concerned to find a deterioration in the level of care being provided put people living there at risk of harm.
“We found significant shortfalls with how the home was being run. The provider didn’t have good systems in place to protect people from the risk of abuse and safeguarding concerns weren’t always reported. In addition, incidents weren’t being reported or investigated properly to keep people safe.
“There wasn’t enough staff to support people living at the home. For night shifts, staff who worked in the day were going to sleep on site and setting alarms to wake up and check on people. We asked the provider to urgently address this.
“In addition, the home had allowed staff to work at the home without checking they were suitable for their role or contacting their past employer references. This put people at the home at risk of being cared for by people who didn’t have the right experience and hadn’t been properly vetted.
“We also had concerns with how staff were treating people they supported, how they spoke about people in front of them, and undignified language in people’s care plans. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
“We’re using our regulatory powers further and will continue to closely monitor the service during this time.”
Inspectors also found restrictive practices were in place, medicines were not being managed safely, staff lacked training required for their roles, and people with communication needs were not being supported to have their voices heard.