A CARE home where 40 incidents of residents behaving aggressively were reported in just three months has been put into special measures by a health care regulator.
A Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of Highfield Farm Care Home off Knowles Road took place in October and the recently published report labels it as ‘inadequate’.
The care home has now been put into special measures in a bid to help it improve.
The report said the care home was rated inadequate in areas of safety, effectiveness and being well-led. It required improvement in all other areas.
Inspectors said there were regular incidents of residents behaving aggressively - both verbally and physically - towards staff and other people, and that there was a lack of proper analysis following such incidents to try and find ways of preventing them happening again.
The CQC inspector stated: “Records we reviewed showed there had been 40 incidents in a three-month period where a person needed management of actual or potential aggression (MAPA) interventions. MAPA is a formal training programme in place for managing behaviour in the least restrictive way possible.
“Although incidents involving both verbal and physical aggression towards staff and people were regular, there was no analysis completed of incidents that occurred to look for potential triggers or ways of reducing the risk from occurring.
“There was a lack of understanding regarding best practice when supporting people with behaviour that challenged, staff did not recognise that people’s behaviour could be a form of communication and required support to manage their behaviour positively.”
During the unannounced visit, the CQC inspector spoke to three people who lived at the home, four relatives and one person’s companion as well as the operational manager, the service improvement manager, and governance manager, the service optimisation manager, the behavioural therapist and three members of staff.
The report stated that the staff felt as though they were ‘stressed’ due to the changes that had taken place within the home.
The report said: “Staff we spoke with told us it had been very difficult and some staff said they felt ‘stressed’ and ‘burnt out’ and ‘I love my job but I have been so stressed lately, we have had a lot of staff changes, new staff that come in don’t get the training and can’t cope so they leave. Staff morale is really low’.
“Another staff member said, ‘I love my job but the turnover of staff has genuinely affected the team, when someone’s having a bad day you don’t feel like anyone’s got your back’.
“We spoke to the service improvement manager about this and they informed us that 50 per cent of the staff team were currently working on ‘adjusted duties’. This meant there were certain jobs they were unable to do, for example supporting people who needed one-to-one support and or working with people who challenged the service.”
Voyage Care, which runs Highfield Farm Care Home, agreed that standards have fallen below an adequate level and are now working with local authorities to improve.
Brian Flynn, Voyage Care’s managing director for the North, said: “We have a duty of care to the people we support and nothing is more important to us than their safety and well-being.
“We accept that the care and support delivered at Highfield Farm fell below the high standards we expect of ourselves. Our swift response and comprehensive action plan has been commended by the CQC.
“We are absolutely committed to ensuring a return to our sector-leading standards of care at Highfield Farm as quickly as possible.
“We will take the learnings from this experience to strengthen our processes. Our aim is always to provide the best and most professional care for the people we support and we take this responsibility extremely seriously.”
