Board defends report into Colchester care home abuse claims

THE board which carried out a review into alleged abuse and neglect at a care home has defended its report.

Essex Safeguarding Adults Board was told about claims of sexual assault at Greenways Care Home, in Colchester, but did not mention it in its published findings.

It only released a summary of the findings, which did not name the care home “to protect former resdients’ confidentiality”.

The decisions prompted criticism from some of the 31 residents who lived at the St Fillan Road home before it was closed by the county council 18 months ago.

But a statement from the Essex Safeguarding Adults Board said it decided the specifics of what abuse took place were not in its remit.

It said: “While allegations of sexual assault were considered in the decision to conduct the review, any specific allegations – including those of sexual assault relating to individual cases – are not within the remit of a serious case review; and are dealt with by the appropriate agencies concerned.

“A serious case review is concerned with learning from any collective failure of agencies.”

The board said it had not publish the full report to protect the confidentiality of residents.

It added: “The executive summary is anonymised to protect confidentiality and yet make public the key findings of the review.”

Julie Young, Essex county councillor, said: “I think there needs to be much more transparency.

“There is nothing I have been shown that gives any detail of what went on in that home.

“How can we know if the recommended action is the right way forward?

“If the report doesn’t include allegations of sexual abuse, how can we have confidence in it?”

Paul Smith, borough councillorfor St John’s, said: “I think it could be more open as to exactly what went wrong, while still preserving confidentiality, because that’s still not clear.”

ExcelCare, which ran the home, has declined to comment.

Meanwhile, a formere employee at Greenways has defended staff at the care home.

The carer said standards had slipped when ExcelCare took over the home from Essex County Council.

In a letter to the Gazette, the worker, who did not wish to be named, alleged profit became the home’s number one priority.

She claimed the number of permanent staff was cut, while untrained agency staff were brought in to cover shifts. “Gradually, stress levels meant dedicated staff left – they were just unable to cope with seeing the residents suffering.

“Sadly, once people hear you worked at Greenways, they assume you were guilty of neglect.

“I was fortunate to find employment in a very good, privately-owned residential home, but still feel sad that the residents, families and staff had to go through so much.”