Archived: The Breightmet Centre for Autism

Updated 13 June 2023

The Breightmet Centre for Autism was registered with the Care Quality Commission on 15 August 2013. It is registered for the following regulated activities:

• Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

At the time of the inspection there was a nominated individual in post who was also the executive director as well as consultant psychiatrist. They had been in post since November 2022. There was no registered manager in post. The hospital manager had been in post since the second week of October 2022 and they had started the process of applying to be the registered manager.

This was the thirteenth inspection of this location. At the eleventh inspection, in March 2022, the service was rated inadequate overall with every key question rated inadequate. The service was placed in special measures. The service was served five warning notices for Regulations 9, 12, 13, 17 and 18.

In December 2022 we re-inspected. The service was still rated inadequate overall, with ratings of inadequate for every key question except responsive, which was rated requires improvement. We found breaches of Regulations 12, 13, 15, 17 and 18 at this inspection and following this inspection we issued a Notice of Proposal to cancel the provider’s registration. The provider made representations in relation to this which were being considered by CQC at the time of this inspection.

This inspection was carried out due to concerning information we received in March 2023 about the immediate safety of people using the service. The inspection was focused on the safe and caring key questions.

What people who use the service say

There were 10 people using the service when we inspected. We spent some time with all 10 people, spoke with 4 people directly about their experience and spoke with 4 relatives/carers.

Some people told us that they did not feel safe at the hospital. They said that they did not trust the staff and they feared raising concerns about their care because they believed it would result in punishment. Others told us that they did feel safe and that they believed the staff were there to support them.

Some people described experiences of being physically restrained by staff in a way which they felt was punitive and excessive. They also described having possessions taken away from them, such as their mobile phone, which restricted their access to their friends and family outside the hospital.

Carers told us that they did not feel involved by staff in their relative’s care and it was difficult to get information from the hospital. Some carers described the hospital preventing them from accessing their relative’s bedroom and said that they did not think staff did enough to facilitate contact between them and their relative.

Updated 13 June 2023

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support: Model of Care and setting that maximises people’s choice, control and independence.

Right Care: Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights.

Right Culture: The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as inadequate because:

• People’s care and support was not provided in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment which met people's sensory and physical needs.
• People were not protected from abuse and poor care. The service had sufficient staff to meet people’s needs but staff were not appropriately skilled or effectively deployed and so people were not always kept safe.
• People were not being well supported to be independent and have control over their own lives. Their human rights were not consistently upheld.
• People did not receive kind and compassionate care from staff who protected and respected their privacy and dignity and understood each person’s individual needs.
• People did not have their communication needs met and information was not shared in a way that could be understood.
• People’s risks were not assessed regularly and managed safely. People were not given the freedom to manage their own risks whenever possible.
• We observed disproportionate use of restrictive practices including physical intervention. The provider was not taking sufficient action to review the use of restrictive practices at the service to try to reduce these.
• People and those important to them, including advocates, were not actively involved in planning their care. People were not supported to use their preferred methods of communication to express their views about their care. When people did raise concerns about their care these were not always listened to and addressed in a timely manner.

This service was placed in special measures following its inadequate rating in March 2022. Following the second inadequate rating, in December 2022, we commenced action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration within six months of the notice.

This urgent inspection was carried out to check the safety of people using the service and, as a result, we took action in line with our enforcement procedures to impose urgent conditions on the provider’s registration to ensure people’s safety including ensuring all people using the service were transferred to alternative placements by 14 April 2023 and to not make any further admissions. The provider complied with these conditions and the hospital has now closed.

Updated 13 June 2023

See above.