Concerns previously raised about Dunstable care home where great-grandmother allegedly suffered fatal assault

A care home in Dunstable where a great-grandmother was allegedly assaulted had been the subject of previous concerns, a meeting heard.

One issue was raised with senior officers two years earlier by Conservative Dunstable Central councillor Carole Hegley, she told Central Bedfordshire Council’s social care, health and housing overview and scrutiny committee.

Sheila Hartman, 88, suffered serious head injuries at Ridgeway Lodge in Brandreth Avenue (run by care provider HC-One) on October 2, after allegedly being attacked by a fellow resident. She died shortly afterwards. An inquest opened last week into her death.

“We’ve had a tragic incident recently,” explained councillor Hegley, CBC’s executive member for adult social care. “I wouldn’t comment on that case. It’s in Bedfordshire Police’s hands and ultimately I’m sure we’ll see it come back as a safeguarding review.

“In this particular instance, there were previous concerns with Ridgeway Lodge. I had an issue in 2020, which I shared with senior officers. And that’s not the first case I’ve had. People whistleblow.”

Councillor Hegley was responding to issues raised by Independent Potton councillor Adam Zerny at the meeting and on social media.

“When we last talked about this in detail, about a dozen care homes locally were rated either ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’,” he said.

“A large number of measures were proposed by CBC to resolve the situation, accepting the council doesn’t run all these homes and can’t necessarily control the operators.

“But it does have a significant role to play with them. Fast forward five years and we still have care homes rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’.

“We’ve a target of 75 per cent of care homes should be ‘good’ or ‘better’, is this the right number? Shouldn’t we aim for everyone to be at least ‘good’?” he asked.

Referring to the Care Quality Commission as the regulator, Councillor Hegley replied: “Many care homes have been struggling through Covid. I meet every month with the contract monitoring team for Central Bedfordshire, which provides a performance report.

“It’s almost a five-tier approach to encourage these care homes to improve their practice. We’ve only a contract monitoring system where we place into those homes.

“We’re looking at re-tendering the residential care contract next year. You said on social media we started Care is Central investing local authority money.

“Clearly that’s our aspiration. We want to keep a foothold in the market and provide good quality, affordable care for people. I’m sure you’re not suggesting we use council money to underpin the new care providers.

“We work closely with them and there’s intense work with some, over a long time in certain instances, to improve those services.”

CBC’s director of social care, health and housing Julie Ogley said: “We should be at 100 per cent, but I’m a bit more realistic.

“Apart from the four homes run by CBC, our involvement with the others is voluntary. We don’t place in every care home in Central Bedfordshire and we don’t have rights of access.

“The care homes would say ‘it’s been a really difficult period’, and that continues. But I want to see 100 per cent care home and home care providers, our residents access, at ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.”