Inspectors on an unannounced visit in March found that safe fire practices at the Adjuvo Care Essex home in Church Road had not been implemented and documentation to allow staff to support residents in the event of a fire was not available.

“The provider did not have robust processes in place to ensure they had oversight of the safety and quality of the service. The concerns found at inspection had not been identified by the checks and audits completed by the provider,” said the inspectors, who said safety and leadership were inadequate.

The CQC inspection found:

• Fire doors wedged open
• No fire risk assessment for staff and a lack of personal evacuation plans for residents
• No record of action taken to address faults with fire doors that had been documented by staff
• Some staff had out-of-date moving, handling and medication training
• No evidence to show that agency staff had appropriate training
• Evidence that staff shifts weren’t always up to strength
• Staff did not feel confident that they had the skills or training to support complex behavioural needs
• The provider had not ensured staff had the appropriate knowledge and skills to support people safely
• Relatives weren’t alway told of incidents and didn’t trust the provider as a result

Five out of a maximum of nine people were living in the home when it was inspected following “concerns in relation to people’s safety and the management of risk at the service”.  A temporary manager was in charge at the time of the inspection.

At its last inspection in February 2019, the home was rated as good. Placing the home in special measures, the CQC said it will keep the home under review and may consider preventing Adjuvo from operating the service if “significant improvements” aren’t made within six months. It also requested an action plan from Adjuvo to improve standards of quality and safety.

The full report can be found here.