The Difficulty Losing Families in Caregiving Gaps in Home Inspections

Care homes graded as inadequate or in need of improvement often do not reopen for a year or more, a BBC investigation has found.

More than 2,100 care homes in England in October this year were marked as “requires improvement” by the CQUC) – but the BBC found that in three quarters within a year or more.

A fifth of the 123 houses marked as “inadequate” – the lowest rating – did not rainpect within the same time frame.

The BBC’s analysis of CQC data found a home rated deficient by 2022 was not rained on by residents, infections, dehydration and exposure to chemicals.

As a result of the delays, families of residents living in poor value nursing homes are not always aware of whether improvements have been made.

The family of a 24-year-old man who died in the corn nursing home called the houses to be checked every year.

Lugh Bakal died at Rosewood House Care Home in Laungstonston, Cornwall, in 2021.

A coroner found failures in relation to her care plan and gaps in monitoring after her death, which remain unexplained.

The CQC inspected it in 2022 and 2023, telling the home it needed to make improvements, but it has not been re-inspected since.

Mr. Baker’s mother, Trudy Polkinghorn, and Sister, Erin Baker, said they felt “hopeless” and disappointed with the regulator.

The CQC said it “constantly monitors” the service through the information it receives and the home said it acted on every complaint to the coroner’s report.

The CQC rates CQC homes in four categories – good, good, needs improvement and inadequate.

This was previously the case for care homes rated as “requires improvement” within a year and homes marked as due for inspection in 2021.

Inspections are now carried out on what it calls a more flexible “risk basis”, which prioritizes homes deemed at risk.

Mr. Baker lived at Rosewood House for six months before his death. At the time, it was rated “good” following an inspection in 2018.

Ms Polkinghorn described him as a “light” and a “joy” to their family.

“He wants to get up every morning at 07:30, put on the dance floor and he wants everyone to dance with him,” he said.

Mr Baker has a rare genetic condition which causes severe learning difficulties, as well as epilepsy and difficulty swallowing.

His care plan prescribed only allowed him to eat certain foods while being supervised and seated to prevent choking.

Mr. Baker was discovered in his room in April 2021 with an unmoving, partially eaten chocolate bar on his bed. The inquiry found no evidence of escape.

The Coroner’s report criticized the home, saying staff were not familiar with his condition and although residents were supposed to be constantly monitored via CCTV, there were times when this did not happen for him.

After the inspection of this inspection, the house is scheduled to be rebuilt within two-and-a-half years.

But it was not reviewed until four years later, in 2022, a year after Mr. Baker’s death, following the scrupulousness of the inspection set.

Then the CQC then again in 2023. On both occasions the house was rated as “requires improvement” and it was told to monitor changes.

No other inspections since.

Ms Polkinghorn said: “When I get up off the floor from places of complete despair, I’m very angry.”

Ms Baker said homes should be inspected annually “at a minimum”.

“When you have a staffing change, or anything like that, you have to make sure it’s still taking care of people,” he said.

Rosewood House said its “heartfelt sympathies remain with the Lugh family”.

A spokesman said they are acting on every recommendation in the coroner’s report into Mr Baker’s death, and are strengthening detailed care plans “and strengthening detailed care plans” and strengthening detailed care plans “and strengthening detailed care plans that”

The CQC said it was “constantly monitoring” the service through information received.

The CQC regulates all social health and adult services in England.

It can take enforcement action if it judges the nursing home to be underperforming, including warning notices that require specific improvements, placing a residence in a service in cervical cases.

The regulator previously warned that it needed to improve its performance.

STUDY Independent review by the CQC In October 2024 many failures were found, including long gaps between inspections and some services running for years without a mark.

It found that the regulator had experienced problems due to its new system, and concerns were raised that the new inspection framework did not provide effective assessments.

There is also a lack of clarity around how the ratings are calculated.

A BBC analysis of CQC data found that 70% of 204 “in need of improvement” homes in the South had been repaired for less than a year or more.

Eileen Chubb, a former care worker and campaigner running the charity Love Love, said she often hears from families and staff who are frustrated with the inspections between inspections.

He said: “We see the worst care homes – diabolical homes – and they haven’t been inspected for two or three years.”

He said whistleblowers had told him they had approached the CQC about “horrendous” homes, but when the regulator inspected them “it was late cases where residents died.

Some stakeholders said the delays were unfair to nursing home owners as well.

Geoffrey Cox, Director of Southern HealthCare which runs four care homes in the south of England, three of which have a “good” with a “good” without an inspection for seven years.

“It’s too far,” he said, adding that years-old reports have “lost credibility”, which has kept the public from trusting them.

“We want to show that we’re really good at what we do and we want to be recognized for that,” he said.

A family told the BBC it was “an effort” to encourage the CQC to “take any action” after a loved one died at a Norwich home.

Karen Staniland’s mother Eileen died after an unsustainable fall in her room at Broadland View Care home in 2020, while a staff member watched her sleep in her sleep.

His care plan stipulated that he should check every hour of the night, giving him a bed that could be lowered to prevent the rods from alerting when he tried to get up.

A local authority defense report after her death found “no aspect” of her care plan had been followed.

The person responsible had false records to suggest the checks were made and was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, for willful neglect in February 2023.

The house was rated as “good” from an inspection in 2017, but a former Broadland viewing employee, who asked not to be named, told the BBC that quality care.

“The protection issues were not documented, and the equipment and training was not very good,” he said.

“It has pressure alarm mats, but when you stand on them, they fall from under your feet – they are used as prevention, but actually cause the fall.”

The former worker said she reported concerns to the CQC on “numerous occasions” but there was “follow up”.

The regulator did not inspect the house until three years after Eileen’s death, downgrading it to “requires improvement”.

The Coroner’s report in 2023 found the home’s manager had not accepted many of the CQC’s concerns and that many promised improvements had not been implemented.

Two years on, the house still hasn’t been reinspected.

Ms Staniland said the family had been left “horrified” and “disappointed” by the CQC.

“I don’t think it’s a regulator, if our experience is anything to go by,” he added.

Broadland View Care Home says it has “learned from the past” and introduced new digital management, robust independent audits to ensure residents are safe and cared for.

The CQC said it was continuing to monitor the Broadland review, and it would “continue to work closely with people working in services and people using the issues facing the sector”.

It said it had a clear commitment to increasing the number of assessments it carried out, “to give the public confidence in the quality of the prompting in how they do it”.