A CARE home in Kendal has received a critical report from a watchdog amid concerns about resident safety and staff training. 

Stonecross Care Home, which provides residential and dementia care for up to 32 people, was rated as 'requires improvement' by the Care Quality Commission after an inspection.

The inspection took place on Wednesday, May 25 with the report being published on Thursday, June 30. 

The overall report states the care home 'requires improvement', for safety the home was rated 'requires improvement', the service being well-led was rated 'inadequate' and for effective, caring and responsive the service was rated as 'good'.

During the inspection, inspectors spoke with three people who used the service, two relatives about their experience and five members of staff including the interim and home managers and two senior care workers.

Some of the key findings of the report stated that people were not always safe.

"People were not safe in the event of a fire or a fire alarm sounding at the home. Risk was not appropriately identified, assessed or managed in a timely way," said the report.

"During the inspection we identified substantial and widespread failings in respect of fire safety arrangements and in the leadership and governance of the service.

"Not all staff had been trained in fire safety and had not received instruction or had experience of using equipment which was central to fire evacuation processes."

The watchdog found that 'recruitment and staff disciplinary processes did not meet current legislation and guidelines'.

"They were not effective at ensuring staff members were always suitable to work with vulnerable people," it said.

"Some essential safety checks had not been made and, in one case, staff disciplinary action had not been scrutinised at the right level or had any provider or expert oversight.

"A temporary staff member who was not providing direct care to people was working and there were no records available to support any checks had been made about whether they were appropriate for the role."

"People received medicines as prescribed and visiting professionals were complimentary about the care and support people received.

"Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) processes were appropriate and we were assured about the service's ability to mitigate the transmission of infections. Staff were competent with safeguarding processes and knew how to protect people from abuse.

"Relatives said their loved ones felt safe in the home and were trusting of staff and management. We observed good practices and interactions between staff and people during the inspection. The service's safeguarding processes were robust.

"Staff supported people to have access to healthcare professionals and specialist support and the service worked well with external specialists. The provider and managers acted during and immediately after the inspection to address the risks we found. This included improved monitoring, checks and reviews."

Stonecross Care Home declined to comment on the report.