CCTV installed at Bedford residential care home without residents' consent

A health watchdog has criticised The Crown care home and given it an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) made two unannounced visits to the home in Britannia Road in September and October and has published its findings.

In a mixed report, inspectors found the service was ‘good’ when it came to the effective, caring and responsive categories. But ‘requires improvement’ when it comes to safety and whether the service is well-led.

You can read the full CQC report for yourself here

In the report, inspectors said: “The provider had installed CCTV in communal areas of the service however, they had not consulted with people living at the service or gained their consent to being filmed. This meant people were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice.”

And added: “This meant they had not given proper consideration to data protection rules and people's privacy.”

The home – run by Alex Davis (Bedford) Ltd – accommodates up to seven adults either with a learning disability or autism – and at the time of the inspection, only two people were living at the service.

Inspectors added: “A new manager was in post who demonstrated a strong commitment to improve the service and address all the inspection findings as quickly as possible. They made a number of changes before the inspection finished but these were too recent for us to assess the effectiveness of all the actions taken on this occasion.”

Despite Bedford Today’s numerous attempts to give Alex Davis (Bedford) Ltd the opportunity to respond, so far the service hasn’t commented.

On the plus side, the health watchdog found:

Staff consistently followed agreed support plans to refocus people and ensure people's behaviour was not controlled by excessive or inappropriate use of medication

The Crown is clean, tidy and fresh

Staff were observed to be attentive, kind and compassionate

There were enough staff to spend quality time with people, as well as meeting their essential needs

However, staffing levels did not always enable people to go out spontaneously for example, to access community facilities

The report added: “The manager demonstrated a strong commitment to comply with all regulatory and legislative requirements. They acted immediately to address the inspection findings; however, under the existing governance systems we could not be assured this would have been addressed if we had not inspected.

"In addition, as the improvements made during the inspection were either too recent or had not yet been fully embedded, we were unable to assess the effectiveness of all the actions taken on this occasion.”

And inspectors added: “Staff told us they felt supported by the new manager who was introducing positive changes at the service; to benefit the people living there. A staff member told us, ‘The manager has eyes on everything... keeps on top of it all and I like it’."