A care home has been told it needs to improve after inspectors found it had "not always understood their responsibilities" to report concerns to the council.

Maidstone Home Care Limited, in Rochester Road, Aylesford, has worsened since a 2019 visit by the Clinical Care Commission (CQC), a report has concluded.

The home, which looks after 20 people, was criticised for not "always protecting people from harm", and failing to report their concerns through safeguarding processes.

The report, which was published at the end of May after a visit in April, said: "Appropriate professionals - Kent County Council - were not made aware of a concern and this resulted in a potential delay to actions to support a person.

"The registered manager and staff had not ensured they had safeguarding training which would have supported them to understand their responsibility to share concerns appropriately in a timely manner.

"Care plans did not always contain detailed information about people's health conditions and this increased the potential risk of harm.

"Where risks had been identified, these had not always been considered within care or risk planning processes."

The care home was visited in March 2019 and received a "Good" rating, but following its most recent inspection was told it "required improvement" in three out of five categories - including is the service safe? Is the service caring? and is the service well-led?

Inspectors admitted relatives of residents spoke highly of managers and staff.

"They are excellent, marvellous, they can't do enough for you," one person said.

'Where risks had been identified, these had not always been considered...'

While another relative described one moment where they were contacted by the staff manager personally, adding: "They rang to say [person] was confused due to an infection and suggested they do an extra call at lunch time to make sure [person] takes their antibiotics until [they] get better."

The report added: "Staff were consistently positive about the registered manager and how they received support through working alongside managers, telephone calls and messages.

"Staff did not always receive sufficient training and supervision was generally informal.

"Following our inspection, the provider told us they had implemented a new training programme to ensure staff received sufficient training.

"Systems and processes did not effectively identify or manage concerns found with care planning, safeguarding or staff training and this is an area in need of improvement.

"The service did not always have robust arrangements for managing confidential information to ensure it was secure and shared appropriately in line with data security standards.

"Following the inspection, the provider responded promptly to review their systems to ensure they were able to demonstrate improvements were being made.

"People, relatives and staff spoke positively about the registered manager."

'We are naturally disappointed with the rating...'

Maidstone Home Care operations manager Lois Laing said: "It is extremely disappointing to see our CQC rating of ‘Good’ reduced to ‘Requires improvement’.

"We have worked extremely hard since commencing our services of care in 2010, even more so since the pandemic started which impacted our levels of staff dramatically.

"Throughout all of the obstacles which we have faced with our team of wonderful and dedicated staff, the safety and wellbeing of all our clients remains paramount.

"This is reflected in the positive comments made to the CQC inspectors by our staff, clients, their families and other health care officials who spoke highly of the care and support their loved ones continue to receive.

"We are naturally disappointed with the rating, which was largely impacted by an isolated incident which is now resolved and offer reassurances to everyone that the improvements recommended by the CQC was fully adopted and put in place within 24 hours of the inspection.

"We eagerly await the return of CQC for a follow-up inspection, and we are positive the ‘Good’ rating we enjoyed for many years will soon be restored.

"We are eternally grateful for the continued support of our clients, their families and our wonderful team of staff, who have positively contributed to the safe care that we promote and provide."

For more details, see the full report on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.