A SPECIALIST dementia care home has been given the second lowest possible rating by the national watchdog for health and care.

Broadoaks residential home in Rochford was rated ‘requires improvement’ following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in August.

The CQC report, published on October 7, saw the home’s rating fall to ‘requires improvement’ overall – the home had previously been rated ‘good’ in December 2018.

Broadoaks has the capacity to care for 39 people. At the time of inspection there were 16 people receiving care at the service.

The latest inspection was prompted due to concerns the CQC had received over staffing levels.

Inspectors criticised the systems used to manage staffing levels. The report said: “The provider did not use a calculation tool to determine what staffing levels should be against the current needs of the people using the service.

“We could not be assured that staffing levels were always adequate to ensure safe, quality care. We found staff were not always deployed effectively.”

The CQC report added people living at the home “did not receive timely support from staff and at times people were left waiting”.

Inspectors did note the home had recently increased the number of staff, but added it was too recent a change to assess potential improvements to the service.

The home’s risk assessments were also criticised for lacking detail.

Inspectors wrote: “The provider conducted investigations into incidents that had happened at the service, such as unwitnessed falls. The investigations did not identify if any additional support or equipment would be required to prevent the incidents from happening again, and were just factual accounts of what had happened.”

In another instance a person at the home identified as being “at risk of falls, being unsteady on their feet and showing distressed behaviours” was left “unsupervised by staff when distressed on the top floor”.

The home was praised for its Covid-19 safety protocols. Staff were said to wear appropriate personal protective equipment and demonstrated to inspectors they knew how to minimise people’s risk of infection.

Croll Group, which runs Broadoaks, has been contacted for comment.