An independent centre for people with autism is facing the threat of closure after inspectors found staff “laughing at people they were supposed to be looking after.”
The Breightmet Centre for People with Autism was already in special measures after the Care Quality Commission found last year that patients were ‘not protected from abuse.’
Now a fresh report released this week has found that the Milthorpe Road centre, run by ASC Healthcare, is still inadequate in the areas of being safe, effective, caring and well-led.
CQC director for people with a learning disability and autism, Debbie Ivonova said: “More worryingly, we witnessed incidents that gave us real concerns about people’s dignity and their experience of using this service.
“We witnessed staff using a disproportionate level of restraint, and care plans weren’t followed in ways such as helping people who needed it to eat and drink.
“We also saw staff laughing at the people they were supposed to be looking after, and that people spent most of their time alone in their rooms.
“People also told us staff could be loud at night time and disrupt their sleep, and their preferences such as to be supported by carers of a specific gender wasn’t always being respected.
“Vulnerable people were relying on all staff members to act as their advocates, to help them live their best lives and it is unacceptable the people they relied on were treating them this way.”
The inspectors found that staff did not treat people ‘with compassion and kindness’, did not ‘respect people’s privacy or dignity.’
On one occasion, staff members apparently laughed at a service user after delaying turning the shower on for them.
The Breightmet Centre for People with Autism currently cares for 12 people.
It had attracted protests in October 2019 and a CQC report released the next year revealed a string of concerns about how people were treated.
At the time, inspectors witnessed a patient deliberately bang their head on the floor, against the wall and against a door causing bleeding from their forehead, but receiving no medical attention.
The centre was then put in special measures after inspectors returned in March 2022, ruled that staff “had no understanding of autism” and gave the centre five warning notices.
The latest inspection, the 12th time the CQC has visited, was carried out on December 12, 13, 14 and 15 at the end of last year.
According to Ms Ivonova the inspectors did see some ‘small improvements’ since the last time they had attended with how the centre was handling complaints.
It was also now working well with services to provide aftercare to ensure people received the right care and support when they went home.
Ms Ivonova said: “We have told the provider that it must make urgent improvements and we won’t hesitate to take further action and use our legal powers to keep people safe, which could include closing the service.
“It is not acceptable to keep people waiting for improvements much longer in a service which is not meeting their needs.”
In response, ASC Healthcare says it has a new management team in place at the centre and is committed to working positively with the CQC.
A spokesperson said: "We are passionate about delivering high quality care to our service users and their safety and wellbeing is our number one priority.
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"The Breightmet Centre for Autism is a small community hospital for adults with Autism and/or learning disability and has an ethos of least restrictive practice and enabling community care for our patients with positive outcomes.
"The new management team at The Breightmet Centre for Autism are working constructively with the CQC and other external stakeholders such as NHSE and our focus is on making ongoing sustained improvements for our service users and families.
"The CQC have acknowledged that improvements had been made at the time of inspection in December 2022 and we are further confident that further sustained improvements continue to be made as we continue to work collaboratively with all external stakeholders."
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