RESIDENTS of Lamerton’s Venn House have been ‘at risk because there were insufficient numbers of staff with the right skills’, according to Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors.

The home has been put into special measures after it received an inadequate rating from the independent regulator of health and social services. It has been rated as inadequate in the areas of safety to residents and whether the service is well-led. All other areas — effectiveness of service and whether the service is caring and responsive — were rated as requiring improvement.

Following a visit to Venn House in May 2017, inspectors returned in November 2017 to carry out a comprehensive report on the care home, which provides accommodation with personal care for a maximum of 25 people, to see if recommended improvements had been carried out.

The CQC took enforcement action in relation to staffing, which required the provider to ensure sufficient numbers of staff were deployed to meet people’s care needs by August 14, 2017. The CQC also made a requirement that the provider must improve their system to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service.

During its November visit, CQC inspectors said ‘people remained at risk because there were insufficient numbers of staff with the right skills to safely meet people’s care and supervision needs at all times’.

Inspectors said that on several occasions during their visit, ‘a person at high risk of leaving the home unaccompanied was able to unlock a door unobserved and get out on a patio area when it was unsafe for them to go out alone.

‘The previous week the person had climbed over the fence from this patio area and got outside, which put them at high risk. The actions taken to improve security in response to that incident were not sufficient to make this area safe and secure.

‘Another person was verbally and physically aggressive towards staff and other people living at the home which staff did not have the skills to manage. Staff had not been trained to manage challenging behaviours. People’s care records lacked guidance for staff about how to manage these behaviours, which meant people and staff continued to be at risk.’

Services in special measures are kept under review and will be inspected again within six months. The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe.

If not enough improvement is made so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, the CQC will take action in line with its enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

The team at Venn House were approached but declined the opportunity to comment.