"This is unacceptable": Arlesey care home placed in special measures by CQC after inadequate rating
A care home in Arlesey has been slammed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after an inspection found failings and rated it as inadequate.
The CQC has placed the service in special measures and will monitor it closely to keep people living there safe whilst improvements are made – and dropped Chase House Limited’s overall rating from good to inadequate.
The move comes following a visit between December 30 2024 and January 8 to assess how the staff and leaders cared for the 49 residents.
A spokesperson for the care home said: “We acknowledge the findings and have taken them very seriously. Since the inspection, our management team has been actively implementing a comprehensive Service Improvement Plan to address all concerns and ensure the highest level of care for our residents.
“We are fully committed to continuous improvement and have already completed a significant portion of our action plan. Our goal is to restore full compliance and maintain a safe, compassionate, and high-quality environment for our residents.”
The inspectors found five breaches of the legal regulations regarding safeguarding, safe care and treatment, person-centred care, consent and governance.
The CQC had a mix of feedback from residents and their families about their experience at the home and found that many interactions were task-focused rather than being centred around the person.
The report, published on Friday, March 7, read: “Our findings around how staff interacted with people showed significant shortfalls.”
Comments from service users stated: “The call bell often falls off the bed, and I can’t reach it. They do 2 to 3-hour checks at night, but they never come in. The other night, I lost the buzzer. I was trying to tell them, but they weren’t listening and just went away.”
While more positive comments included: “I think they are amazing; they ring me up about everything, they are spot on with safeguarding and when things haven’t gone quite right, they follow all the procedures. I can’t find a single thing wrong with them.”
Stuart Dunn, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said: “Leaders didn’t support staff to safeguard people from harm or provide people with the level of care they should be able to expect.
“One person told us they waited for up to 30 minutes for support and had to bang on the furniture because staff ignored their calls. We had to intervene when we saw a person visibly unwell and bent over in their chair. Staff had left them without assistance before we stepped in to get help, this is unacceptable.”
People were not always treated with dignity and respect. Mr Dunn said: “Our inspectors overheard a staff member loudly referring to a person’s incontinence as an explosion in front of others. The home also compromised people’s dignity by sharing personal items such as underwear that holds incontinence pads in place between residents.”
While assessing the care home, the CQC reported that “staff worked with external health professionals and sought medical advice appropriately when the service had identified changes to people’s health and care needs”.
The report also stated: “The service failed to plan for end-of-life care. A few people had no recorded end-of-life care plans, meaning their wishes, cultural needs, and personal preferences were not considered when nearing the end of their lives.”
Stuart Dunn, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said: “It was also concerning that staff didn’t handle residents safely when they were moving them.
“Leaders failed to safeguard people from harm and allowed a closed culture to develop. We saw leaders had removed key details from a safeguarding referral, including a physical struggle between a resident and a staff member, which could give a false impression to outside partners about what happened. This is part of what makes a culture closed.”