"'Serious concerns' raised over Castlebeck care"

There are "serious concerns" about care at four Castlebeck-run services for people with learning difficulties, the Care Quality Commission has said.

It named Arden Vale, near Coventry; Rose Villa, in Bristol; Croxton Lodge, in Melton Mowbray, Leics; and Cedar Vale, in Nottingham, in its report.

But the CQC said the problems it had found were not on the scale of those that led to the closure of Castlebeck's Winterbourne View home, near Bristol.

The company has yet to comment.

The care regulator's investigation was launched following the closure of Winterbourne View after a BBC Panorama investigation had captured footage of some of its most vulnerable patients being repeatedly pinned down, slapped, taunted and teased.

A further seven hospitals or care homes run by Castlebeck do not fully comply with essential standards of quality and safety, said the CQC report.

Twelve services were found to be compliant with the essential standards which were reviewed.

The commission said it could not comment on the specific concerns it had raised.

However the areas investigated included lack of training for staff, inadequate staffing levels, poor care planning, failure to notify relevant authorities of safeguarding incidents and failure to involve people in decisions about their own care.


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