Agenda item

The Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding submits a briefing note regarding a serious safeguarding allegation of mistreatment by staff of residents at Fosse Court Residential Care Home.  The Commission is recommended to receive the update and comment as appropriate.

The Councillors representing the Fosse Ward have been invited to the meeting to participate in this item.

The Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding submitted a briefing note regarding a serious safeguarding allegation of mistreatment by staff of residents at Fosse Court Residential Care Home.

The Assistant Mayor (Adult Social Care) advised the Commission that the Council had contracts with approximately 103 care homes in the city.  The care provided at these was monitored in a number of ways, so the Council was confident that, as far as could be determined, proper care was being provided at these establishments.  When that care had fallen below the required standard at Fosse Court, swift action had been taken, as it was important to identify failing establishments quickly and take appropriate action.

The Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding stressed that the Council was committed to ensuring that any lessons that could be learned from this situation were taken on board.  The Council worked as part of a multi-agency safeguarding partnership, so the local Safeguarding Adults Board had been asked to carry out a full review of the situation.  This would be conducted by someone independent to any agencies involved, so it would not be a Council-led review, but it would provide a thorough and systematic way for development and learning to be captured.

Councillor Cassidy, Member for Fosse Ward, addressed the Commission at the invitation of the Chair.  He thanked officers for providing full information in response to questions raised by the Ward Members about the closure of the home and welcomed this as good practice.  He also stressed that he felt that the Ward Councillors had been kept informed in an appropriate way of the actions being taken in response to the issues identified.

Neither of the Ward Councillors had been aware of any problems in that particular home, leading Councillor Cassidy to ask if there was a way in which Ward Councillors could have more contact with such establishments.  In this way, it was hoped that residents and their relatives could have confidence that the care being provided by the homes was being fully monitored.

Some concern was expressed that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had missed signs of the problems that were identified at Fosse Court and it was questioned whether the CQC inspections had been undertaken properly, or whether the number of bodies involved in inspecting residential care homes had led to a degree of complacency.

Mr Philip Parkinson, on behalf of Healthwatch, noted that situations such as that at Fosse Court could arise very quickly and required immediate attention.  He paid tribute to the officers who had found alternative settings for all 21 residents very quickly, as well as providing follow-up care the following week, to ensure that their setting was appropriate.  Healthwatch had received very limited feedback on the events at Fosse Court, but that which had been received had been very complimentary.

In response to comments and questions from the Commission, the Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding advised that a range of staff had been provided to Fosse Court to provide 24 hour cover.  A number of the provider’s care team were arrested and bailed and these formed a significant proportion of the home’s staff, so the staff provided by the Council provided continuity of care for all residents, not just those funded by the Council.  It was recognised that a number of residents in any home would develop a relationship with social workers/locality team leaders, so these specific individuals were brought in where possible.

Officers had maintained communication with the relatives of Fosse Court residents, holding a meeting for them to ensure that the message remained consistent.  This would have been held earlier in the process, but the provider did not initially give access to a meeting in the home and before the rearranged meeting was held the provider advised that the home would close.

As far as possible, residents had been given as much choice of where they were relocated to as was possible, based on their individual needs.  The new placements were for as long as those residents wanted them, to enable them to give full consideration to the options available.  Currently, some residents were settling in their new homes and some were investigating alternative accommodation.

It was too early to start to draft details of “lessons learned” from these events, as officers needed to review the firm evidence that was available to them, rather than speculate.  A key element of this review was to ensure that all organisations involved did all that they could to protect residents and to see if there was anything else that could have been done.  However, no assurance and/or inspection process would be likely to identify wilful acts of abuse, so it was important that people knew how to raise concerns swiftly.

The Commission welcomed the work that had been done to empower residents and staff to be “whistle blowers”, but queried what constituted “due regard” to minimise the risk of this sort of situation arising again. 

Details of the situation at Fosse Court Residential Care Home had been presented to the Adult Learning Group, (a sub-group of the local Safeguarding Adults Board), during the week beginning 4 August 2014.  The Police process was still underway and Police advice was awaited that this had got to a suitable point for a review to be undertaken.  It was hoped that this would be completed within six months.  There was no statutory requirement to publicise the result of the review, but it was considered to be good practice to do so. 

In reply to concerns that the forthcoming sale of homes such as Abbey House could create capacity problems, the Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding reassured Members that premises to be sold would still have places available that could be used.  In addition, the new intermediate care unit would provide additional capacity.  If the Fosse House residents who had been relocated to Abbey House wanted to stay at Abbey House, they would be treated the same as other residents when that home was sold.

The Director also confirmed that all homes used by the Council had to comply with a contract specification and that the Council had to be assured that the home could meet this.  Costs were agreed under banded rates as a starting point for a person’s care, but these costs could increase if that person had particular needs.

RESOLVED:

That receipt of a report on the findings of the review of events at Fosse Court Residential Care Home be included on the Commission’s Work Programme for 2014/15, the Ward Councillors for Fosse Ward to be invited to address the Commission when that report is considered.