A CARE home for people with learning disabilities does not have enough qualified nurses to meet people’s needs according to an inspection.

House 2, Slade House in Headington, Oxford, is on the same site where 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk died last year.

It is believed he drowned in the bath at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Slade House after an epileptic fit on July 4, 2013.

Staff at House 2, a separate unit also run by Southern Health, described themselves as “very short staffed, very tired” to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Criticism was raised over its staffing and quality of service provision by inspector the CQC.

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The report read: “Each person needed ‘regular monitoring and support from a consistent staff team’ to prevent impacting on this person’s mental health and becoming a trigger for relapse.

“This meant that people were at risk due to not having adequate numbers of nursing staff who understood their needs.

“We found there were three qualified nurses employed by the service as part of the team that needed to ensure continuity. This led to nursing staff ‘feeling pressured’ to work long hours to sustain continuity for people they supported.

“We saw that there had been incidents that would have had potentially major impacts on people had they not been supported by this consistent staff team.”

One nurse said in the report: “I am lucky I don’t get ill very often, as there isn’t time to get ill.”

The report found that one nurse, an interim manager of the home, worked 83 hours and was on call four times in one week and another worked 60 hours as well as four on-call duties and a ‘sleep-in’ shift.

The report also found there was no effective system to assess and monitor the quality of service provided, but did find that the day-to-day management of the house was well organised and effective.

A spokesperson for Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust said: “The CQC report acknowledges that appropriate actions have been taken in response to their concerns, in most cases, on the day of the inspection visit, which was some four months ago.”

Paul Scarrott, 43, of Greater Leys, and a trustee of My Life My Choice, an Oxford-based charity for people with learning disabilities, said: “The hard-working nurses at Slade House deserve credit for treating the patients with care and respect, but yet again the leadership of Southern Health is being criticised by the CQC inspectors.

“Some 18 months after Connor Sparrowhawk’s preventable death at Slade House the leadership of Southern Health still seems to be running services that are unsafe, under-staffed and lacking in clear leadership. This is very worrying for our members with learning disabilities and their families.”

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