News Aster Healthcare fined £1m, care staff


sentenced after scalding death trained to provide a sufficient level of care for the residents. It was also established that there


Care provider Aster Healthcare has been fined more than £1m, with two staff sentenced, in connection with the 2015 death of a female care home resident with dementia in Berkshire. Frances Norris, 93, died three


days after she was put in a scalding bath at Birdsgrove nursing home in Bracknell, which later closed in 2016. Surrey-based Aster Healthcare, which


owns four care homes, pleaded guilty to a charge of corporate manslaughter. The Royal Courts of Justice ordered the


company to pay a fine of £1.04m over three years. Elizabeth West, 46, who was care home


manager of Birdsgrove, was sentenced to nine months’ custody suspended for 18 months. Noel Maida, 50, who was a senior carer


at the nursing home, was sentenced to 16 weeks’ custody suspended for 18 months. Maida was one of two carers who gave Norris


a bath. A joint investigation by Thames Valley Police and the Health and Safety Executive found the temperature of the bath had not been checked properly and more hot water was added to the bath while Norris was sat in it. The temperature of the water resulted in


serious burns to both her lower legs and feet. After a lengthy delay, Norris was hospitalised and subsequently died of bronchopneumonia at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 8 February 2015, which was the direct result of the burns she had suffered. The investigation into her death found that


there was no proper bathing policy in place and the staff at Birdsgrove were not adequately


had been a longstanding problem with regulating the hot water supply and Aster Healthcare had not followed the available guidance for the safe provision of hot water.


The bath in question was not fitted with


the correct type of thermostatic mixing valve; further, the one that was fitted had not been serviced, and was not working properly. The investigation also found the issues


at Birdsgrove were well known by senior management and established that they provided false documents to the police and partner agencies in an attempt to mislead the investigation. “Mrs. Norris was a vulnerable lady who


relied upon others to help her with every aspect of her daily routine. She should never have been placed at such risk of receiving these scald injuries leading to her death,” said Thames Valley Police senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Sally Spencer. “The level of care she received before


and immediately after being injured was not acceptable, Mrs. Norris and her family deserved more from the people and company assigned with providing that level of care,” she added. “Aster Healthcare, Elizabeth West


and Noel Maida were all responsible for providing a care service for Mrs. Norris and were themselves experienced within the care industry. The simplest of tasks caused a fatality that if all of them had taken appropriate steps, could have been avoided.”


Anchor gives Hanover the heave-ho from trading name


Anchor, England’s largest not-for-profit provider of housing and care to older people, has dropped Hanover from its trading name for all its services. Previously, Anchor was used for the


organisation’s 114-home care home business, which employs the majority of its more than 9,000 colleagues, while Anchor Hanover was used for its retirement housing. While the organisation’s legal name


remains Anchor Hanover Group, the trading name becomes Anchor for all services across the organisation, which has almost 1,700 locations and operates in more than 85 per cent of local councils in England. The organisation, which has roots


dating back almost 60 years, became Anchor Hanover in 2018 with the merger of Anchor Trust and Hanover Housing Association. Many of its individual developments


have Hanover in the names of their locations and there are no plans for these to change. “A single name makes it clearer for


residents and stakeholders that we offer a joined-up range of housing, care and support services for people in later life. There is no impact on residents or suppliers and no costs related to the name change will be passed on to residents,” said Anchor chief executive Jane Ashcroft CBE.


CQC rerating of improved care homes to move up agenda – Terroni


The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is to expedite the potential rerating of adult social care homes rated as requires improvement (RI) as the regulator aims to clear the backlog arising from the pandemic. Speaking at the Care Show at the NEC


on 13 October, CQC chief inspector of adult social care services Kate Terroni (pictured) said the regulator is “coming up with a plan” for rerating RI homes that have improved. The CQC suspended routine inspections


of adult social care homes in March 2020 in response to coronavirus outbreak. Terroni said there was an increasing “need


10


to support” the social care workforce and its morale, saying it was “demoralising” for care managers and staff who work in homes that now are of good quality since their RI rating. Care England chairman Avnish Goyal said there is “huge concern” among care providers


about the RI homes issue, adding it would welcome “speedy progress” on the matter. Terroni meanwhile reiterated that the


CQC “will be proportionate” in regulating compliance with mandatory Covid-19 staff vaccinations. Terroni had previously told the Dementia,


Care & Nursing Home Expo in September that the CQC will look at the level of staff vaccination in a home “in the round”, taking into account the overall service provided. The CQC has a number of measures at


its disposal including warning notices in the event a home is not adequately vaccinated.


www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • November 2021


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