'Poor quality' report on city care home for disabled adults

The Pennine Centre, on north Bransholme, in Hull, was recently at the centre of a furore over plans to save 300,000, which led Labour to accuse the Lib Dems of trying to close beds. Now a critical report by the Care Quality Commission gives the home no stars out of a possible three and says people using the centre "experience poor quality outcomes".

The report finds failings in the way the 12-bed centre is run and says managers have not learned from previous inspections.

An allegation that two staff members had emotionally and physically abused a resident was not passed on until seven days after the event because the manager was on holiday.

The report stated: "The lack of understanding about the seriousness of this situation shown by senior staff is concerning and there has been a failure to improve in this area over the last three years. The incident is currently being investigated by the Hull Safeguarding Team."

An inspection last year found fault with the way medication was handled and staff were subsequently retrained. However on their latest visit inspectors found errors were still being made.

The report said: "The management team are failing to ensure that the quality of the services improves, meaning that people's needs may not be met, they may not be protected from risk of harm and their wishes and choices are not always respected."

More positively users of the service praised it as "excellent" and the home was described as "clean, hygienic, comfortable and homely." Staff were described as "very helpful, professional and polite when offering personal care" and the food "excellent".

Lib Dem councillor Stephen Baker confirmed there were no plans to close the home. He said: "Obviously I am not happy, but we have to rectify everything that they have criticised us for. I have had discussions with the head of service because a lot of it is staffing issues.

"In fairness I went to a carers' meeting over the issue of the Pennine Centre and they were full of praise for the staff - they said they couldn't do enough for them. But we have to take on board what has come out of the inspection and tighten up."