Pegswood care home's CQC rating downgraded after inspectors raise concerns over lack of activities

The regulator visited Bentinck Crescent in September and found the home, which cares for and supports people with disabilities, learning difficulties, and autism, was not meeting all the regulations it was required to.

The inspection of the care home for seven people, run by social care charity Community Integrated Care, was unannounced and took place after the CQC “received concerns in relation to the management of the service.”

The resulting report, which assessed the home against the CQC’s safe, responsive, and well-led criteria, concluded Bentinck Crescent overall rating should be downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

The report said: “Mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions were not in place for all decisions.

“For example, one person did not have a best interest decision in place for the use of bed rails.”

Inspectors also noted that medicine administration records were not satisfactorily maintained and nothing had been done about the concerns flagged up in medicines audits.

They found no evidence these problems had resulted in harm, but highlighted that regulations were still breached.

The care home did not have sufficient risk assessments or fire safety measures, and lessons learned after accidents were not always recorded.

The report criticised activities at the home, saying care was not always personalised, adding: “Some people had their aspirations documented, such as going swimming. However, this activity was not happening.

“Staff were not always available at the right times for people to go on trips out when they wanted to.

“One relative said ‘there is too much sitting around, hopefully things will improve.’ Another relative said ‘[person] used to go swimming, I do not know why they do not go now.’”

Inspectors did observe day to day needs being met and praised how the home met residents’ communication needs, however.

They also praised the home’s management for engaging with residents and their relatives in how the service was run.

However, management was criticised for having “not robust” quality monitoring processes and for not picking up the issues the CQC found.

The report said: “The provider had identified a number of issues in the service in 2022. However, these issues were still evident at the time of this inspection.”

Marc Brodie, managing director for Community Integrated Care said: “As a charity, providing high-quality, safe and reliable services to the people we support is our number one priority.

“We take the recent CQC inspection report for Bentinck Crescent extremely seriously and are disappointed by the downgrading in service rating from ‘good’, which it has been for several years, to ‘requires improvement’.

“Alongside our regional management and quality teams, we have now developed a robust plan of action to swiftly resolve all issues raised and ensure that the service meets the standards both we and CQC expect.

“This plan includes the introduction of new operational leadership, changes to the management of medications, and improvements to care planning and communication.

“We would like to apologise to the people we support, their loved ones, and our commissioning partners for the outcome of the report and offer our complete assurance that we will make immediate improvements to the service.”