The White House care home in Chatham placed into special measures
It follows an inspection by the CQC in March
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated The White House in Chatham, Kent as inadequate and placed it into special measures to protect people, following an inspection in March.
The White House, run by Curant Care Homes Limited, is a residential care home for up to 38 people older people, some of whom have dementia.
The inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s regular checks on the safety and quality of services, and it was the first inspection at the home following a takeover by Curant Care Homes Limited.
Immediately following the inspection, CQC suspended the ratings of the home on its website. CQC can suspend ratings whilst investigating information of concern. This ensures that people looking for information about an organisation can be confident that ratings are an up-to-date, accurate reflection of the care being provided.
The home has been rated as inadequate overall, and for being safe, responsive, and well-led. Effective and caring have been rated as requires improvement.
The service has been placed in special measures which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made. CQC also issued warning notices following the inspection to focus their attention on making significant improvements around safe care and treatment, the safety of the environment of the home, and how they were managing the service.
Serena Coleman, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said:
“When we inspected The White House, we found that poor leadership had led to a deterioration in the quality of care being provided and this put people at risk of harm. This was because leaders didn’t have a good grasp of the issues they were facing, or how to fix them.
“Our inspectors saw the home was visibly dirty and smelled strongly of urine. The smell was apparent in the carpets, chairs, pressure cushions, and in people’s bedrooms. Leaders said they were aware of the issue, but it was clear they hadn’t addressed it as appropriate cleaning wasn’t taking place.
“Staff didn’t always treat people respectfully or with dignity. We found residents sat in lounge chairs with wet clothes, and some staff were impatient with people when they needed support. Some staff also spoke about people with dementia in a way that was not respectful, showing they didn’t fully understand the needs of the people living there.
“Leaders didn’t have an effective system in place to manage safeguarding or protect people from the risk of abuse. They hadn’t investigated concerns or made external referrals when they should. We found in January safeguarding concerns were raised about a member of staff, but they continued to work at the home without an investigation.
“We also found staffing was another significant concern putting people at risk of harm which leaders hadn’t addressed. Night shift incident reports showed 19 falls had taken place, when only three staff members were on duty to care for 29 residents as well as undertake other duties like cleaning. Leaders hadn’t looked at these patterns to see if this staffing level was appropriate and if anything could be done to reduce the number of falls.
“We have told The White House where immediate and widespread improvements are needed and have used our regulatory powers by issuing warning notices and placing them in special measures to address this. We’ll continue to closely monitor the home to keep people safe and will return to reinspect.”
Inspectors found
Leaders hadn’t identified many of the issues found by inspectors, showing a lack of oversight of people’s care.
People’s care plans lacked detail on their needs and preferences.
Staff and leaders didn’t understand the Mental Capacity Act and how to apply it to people’s care. Decisions were made on people’s behalf without clear reasoning.
Staff recruitment checks were incomplete.
The home had not sought feedback from people and their loved ones to make improvements. People said they had raised complaints which weren’t resolved.
However
People were provided with meaningful and varied activities by the activities coordinator and were supported to keep relationships with their families and friends.
The company says since buying the home last June, they're continually investing to make it compliant and safe.