"Significant" changes at Bognor Regis care home which was deemed "inadequate" last year

A spokesperson for the care home, which supports young people with a range of physical and mental disabilities, said the team has effected a number of significant changes since last year’s report, as part of a “comprehensive action plan developed to address the CQC’s feedback."

They said the plans includes the introduction of “an extensive retraining programme for all colleagues, in addition to further training delivered to the people we support and colleagues on keeping safe, which we have since maintained.

"We additionally introduced a 24/7 whistleblowing hotline which anybody connected to the home can contact anonymously if they have any concerns.”

The CQC’s report made clear that, when the inspection took place in March, service at Beachview was frequently unsafe, often ineffective and poorly led, leading to a shortfall in the quality of care.

It included several instances of apparent neglect and disregard. One member of staff recalled how they had overheard a colleague say “you’re lazy and fat and you need to lose weight,” to a disabled young person supported by the service, adding that they did not feel comfortable reporting the incident because they “did not want to get into trouble.” Another member of staff told inspectors that the same patient kept asking staff if they “had been naughty,” and, if so, whether or not they were going to be shut in their room.

Staffing was another serious issue, with both existing staff and the families of patients reporting that there simply were not enough people to keep the service operating as intended. “It's not safe; we do our best with what we've got,” one staff member said. “We can only do basics here at the moment, everything is rushed."

Since then, Beachview owners Dolphin Homes have acknowledged the shortfalls in service, and made clear that staff members who did not follow the values of the people they support were “suspended immediately and subsequently dismissed.” They were also especially keen to resolve the issues with staffing and, after an extensive recruitment campaign, told Sussex World that the care home is now at full staff capacity.

"We acknowledge some results fell far short of the high standards the people we support, and their loved ones, rightfully expect and we apologise for these shortcomings,” a spokesperson said. “We are clear we have a zero-tolerance policy on individuals delivering sub-standard care, and have taken swift action when issues highlighted in the report were first raised with us.

"We have worked closely with West Sussex Quality Team to embed these improvements since the inspection in March 2023 and report being published in July 2023 and continue to liaise closely with CQC to ensure we provide the best possible support to the people we care for, we look forward to welcoming CQC inspectors when they revisit our home.”

When a care home is rated ‘inadequate’ it is automatically placed in special measures, which means the CQC will re-inspect the service within six months to check for evidence of significant improvement. If this does not happen, the CQC will introduce enforcement measures.