A care home in the London Borough of Havering has been rated 'inadequate' overall by the Care Quality Commission.
Dothan House, in Gidea Park, Romford, was rated 'inadequate' for being safe and well-led. It was rated 'requires improvement' for being effective, caring and responsive, following the inspection in February 2018.
Dothan House, which is run by Genesis Residential Homes Ltd, can accommodate up to 19 people, some of whom have dementia.
The service was unsafe. There were inadequate systems in place to protect people from the risk of serious harm including concerns regarding the storage of substances hazardous to health and the approach to health and safety at the service. The premises were not always clean or well-maintained, posing a health and trip hazard for people.
Fire equipment was not always easily accessible and personal emergency evacuation plans located by the fire exits were not up to date, posing a risk in the event of a fire.
There were ineffective training systems in place, which left staff without up to date training in essential areas such as moving and handling, dementia awareness and caring for people with challenging behaviour. This placed people at risk of harm as staff did not have the essential skills and understanding needed to meet their complex needs.
There was no registered manager in place. The interim manager did not have the necessary qualifications or experience to manage the service safely and the provider had failed to provide them with systems of support.
Dothan House has now been placed into special measures. This service will continue to be kept under review and, if needed, could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s deputy chief inspector of adult social care, says: “We found systemic failings in the oversight and the monitoring of the service at Dothan House. This resulted in inadequate measures in place that did not ensure, training, records, policies, health and safety checks were robust enough to ensure the quality of care delivered was monitored and improved.”
