Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Adults Board: Safeguarding Adults Review, The Morleigh Group (November 2020)

Summary

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Adults Review into The Morleigh Group has found elderly people in care homes in Cornwall were abused and neglected while failings led to reports of concerns not being investigated. The Morleigh Group operated seven homes in Cornwall and has since shut down.

The review was completed in April 2019 but has only just been made public - Rob Rotchell, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for adult social care said that this was due to the number of agencies being involved.

Content

The review looked back over the period from 2013 to 2016 and catalogues a number of failings and missed opportunities to address the situation.

Among its findings are:

• More than 100 residents had concerns raised more than once.
• More than 200 safeguarding alerts were made for individuals but only 16 went through to an individual adult safeguarding conference.
• More than 80 whistleblower or similar reports were made concerning issues that put residents at risk.
• 44 inspections were undertaken at Morleigh Group homes in the three-year period, the vast majority identifying breaches.
• There was a period of at least 12 months when four of the homes had no registered manager in place.
• During the three-year period reviewed the police received 130 reports relating to the care homes.

In total there are 15 recommendations made by the review which have been accepted by Cornwall Council and the Safeguarding Adults Board.

These include changes to contract management for the provision of care services so that they link with safeguarding and inspections.

On whistleblowing the review says there needs to be a clear whistleblowing process for all staff, residents, families and professionals to follow and to ensure that information is shared across all agencies.

Other recommendations include better enforcement to ensure action is taken when breaches are identified.

And it calls for a “front door” for all alerts made about care providers so that there is no confusion about who should take responsibility to deal with concerns.