A RUNCORN care home has been told it ‘requires improvement’ after inspectors found there had been a large number of unreported falls by residents.

Health and social care watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) discovered that there had been 165 falls by people living at Norton Lodge since January 2016.

Inspectors visited the home in Norton Village twice in December.

In a report just published, inspectors said: “Thirty two of these were unwitnessed or unexplained resulting in injury.

“No notifications in respect of these falls had been submitted to the CQC or the local authority.”

The home cares for up to 30 people who have mental health issues, alcohol related problems, learning disability or dementia.

Inspectors said the service was not always safe, effective or well-led and all three categories ‘require improvement’.

Inspectors found that a care concern referral process had recently been implemented as a result of communication with the CQC and Halton safeguarding team.

Records showed that although care staff had previously completed relevant documentation in respect of safeguarding accidents and incidents, appropriate notifications had not been forwarded by the registered manager to the CQC or Halton Council.

Inspectors said: “This meant that potential safeguarding concerns were not investigated or addressed in line with the local safeguarding adults interagency policy and breached regulations.”

Inspectors found that training for five members of staff was out of date and supervisions were overdue for some staff.

The home was without a registered manager as the previous person in charge had just resigned.

The report said: “The service was not always well-led. We saw where audits had been completed the identified areas for improvement had not been acted upon and they had not followed up on this.

“Managers and staff were not always acting in accordance with the Mental Health Act to ensure that people received the right level of support with their decision making as they did not record any consent to care.”

The CQC said systems have now been improved.

Inspectors said: “We saw a newly introduced data base which recorded all safeguarding, incidents and accidents and had a full audit trail that recorded outcomes, lessons learned and a reviewing system to identify themes.

“We saw that risk assessments had been updated to ensure individual risk was managed.”