Brierley Hill care home at centre of court case put into 'special measures' following inspection

The inspection was carried  to review whether the home had made improvements following the previous one, when breaches of regulation were identified.

At that time CQC inspectors identified two continued breaches of regulation related to risk management and management of the service, and four new breaches related to person-centred care, consent, safeguarding and recruitment.

Last month former bosses  Graham Walker and his wife Lyn were jailed along with manager Jamiel Slaney Summers after trying to  fleece a pensioner out of £133,000 by faking her will

The findings of the current inspection included: Leaders not investigating or reporting safety events or take concerns seriously enough;  Poor leadership and inaccurate record keeping putting people at risk;  Staff using unsafe moving and handling techniques on multiple occasions and leaders not providing staff with clear information and guidance on supporting people with known health conditions, including diabetes, epilepsy or heart conditions.

The home has now been downgraded on how safe and effective it is from requires improvement to inadequate. How caring and responsive it is has again been rated requires improvement, and how well-led it is has again been rated inadequate.

The special measures will involve close monitoring to ensure people are safe while they make improvements, a structured timeframe for the improvements and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.

Amanda Lyndon, CQC’s deputy director of adult social care in the West Midlands, said: “During our inspection of Amberley Care Home, we found the home wasn’t providing people with care that effectively met their needs.

"This was partly due to leaders lacking a full understanding of the service, as their auditing and monitoring systems were ineffective.

“We found leaders didn’t ensure staff had appropriate guidance to help manage people’s known health conditions. They also hadn’t made sure staff had the necessary skills and knowledge to carry out their roles and didn’t carry out appropriate recruitment checks.

“It was concerning to find staff hadn’t updated people’s care plans to reflect their current support needs. For example, when people had fallen, staff hadn’t recorded what they’d done in order to reduce the risk of it happening again.

"They also hadn’t updated records to reflect any deteriorations in people’s health meaning not all staff would be aware if people’s care needs changed.

“The home didn’t work well with partner organisations to ensure people received safe and consistent care, including when people moved between different services. Leaders hadn’t reported potential safeguarding incidents to the local authority or CQC, which put people at risk of harm.

“While people and their relatives were generally positive about the quality of care, we found the care and support failed to meet expected standards.

“We have told leaders where they need to make urgent improvements. We will continue to closely monitor the service to make sure people are safe while this happens.”

It was noted leaders had recently made changes and invested to make improvements in the home and had taken some immediate action to address the safety concerns inspectors had raised.

The report will be published on CQC’s website. 

Amberley Care Home has been contacted for comment.