Bexhill care home goes into special measures

Southlands Place, an elderly persons care home in Hastings Road, was given the rating in a report published on January 11.

The CQC says it held its inspection, which took place in October last year, after “a wide range of issues” were raised by relatives, staff, external professionals and East Sussex County Council.

The inspector said: “Before this inspection, several people raised concerns with us about the safety of people in the home. One person’s relative told us they did not think their relative was safe and another told us that some of their relative’s falls had not been reported to the local authority in accordance with safeguarding procedures.

“An external professional also raised concerns with us about the safety of people at the service who were at risk of falling.”

The inspector added that the home was not consistently following safeguarding policies, which require incidents like falls to be reported to East Sussex County Council.

A spokesperson for the home said: “The health and wellbeing of our residents is our number one priority and we take feedback from the CQC very seriously. We apologise to our residents and their loved ones for any distress this report may have caused. We have brought in a very experienced new manager since the inspection.

"With ongoing support from our Senior Management Team, the manager and the staff team have been working around the clock to address points raised during the inspection in October.

"The report acknowledges that several measures were put in place immediately and we have subsequently implemented a comprehensive action plan, which has been shared with the CQC and fellow care professionals.

“Prior to the inspection we had already commenced a recruitment programme to reduce the use of agency staff. The report notes that experienced and enthusiastic new members had already joined the team.

"Since then we have recruited additional full-time staff, to further complement the dedicated care team. A great deal of work has been done since the inspection in October.

"We are confident we have a full plan in place to address the concerns raised.”