A NORTH-East care home has been branded ‘inadequate’ by inspectors.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Benamy Care, in Seaham, County Durham that it must make improvements or face enforcement action.

During an unannounced inspection in July, inspectors found that the home which provides care and accommodation to five people with learning disabilities, was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led.

Debbie Westhead, deputy chief inspector of Adult Social Care in the North for the CQC, said: “We found that the care provided at Benamy Care fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide.

“We have told them they must take action to resolve the issues we identified.

“While we did see some caring interactions between staff and people living in the home, the safety issues we identified needed attention.”

The report identifies a number of areas in which improvements are required.

The home did not have suitable arrangements in place for obtaining the consent of people to the care and treatment provided for them.

People were not protected from the risk of infection because they were not cared for in a clean, hygienic environment.

Inspectors raised concerns that there were not enough staff on duty to meet people's needs.

Staff worked long hours with some shifts totalling 14 hours during which time they had no opportunity for a break.

Inspectors found that people living in the home were not kept safe due to poor medicines management.

Staff were not always provided with sufficient training and supervision and care plans for people living at the home lacked detail and were not being regularly reviewed to take account of people’s changing needs.

In addition, The home did not effectively monitor the quality of service that people received.

Ms Westhead said: “We have made it clear that we will return to the home to check that the necessary improvements have been made.

“If not, we will take further action to make sure that people living there receive care which is safe, effective, caring and responsive to their needs.”

No-one was available for comment at the home when contacted by The Northern Echo.

A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today at http://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-112721378