Choosing the right care home is a complicated and stressful process. The wrong decision can have very serious negative consequences for the  family member in the care home and it can be hugely stressful for you.  This is the sad lesson that I learned when I decided to move my mum to Ashlands (or Stoneygate Ashlands as it’s named in PrimeLife’s publicity). It’s a decision that I now look back on as one of the worst I ever made! And getting her out of the place after 2 months was one of the best!

I or my wife, or sometimes family friends, visited her almost every other day—and almost every time someone visited, significant failures in the care were obvious There were endless problems in terms of basic physical care and too many incidents of  my mum being ignored or treated in ways that left her with little dignity or independence.

There were some members of staff who did appear to care–but they seemed to lack the time, know-how and (above all) the support and supervision by senior management, to carry out the job to an adequate standard. At no time did we see any sign that senior managers were supervising or monitoring the care my mother received. And there was never any sign that PrimeLife plc was overseeing what was happening in one of its care homes. If you click on PrimeLifes Track Record, you’ll see that this isn’t just a problem at Ashlands.

Time and again we raised and discussed our concerns with staff–and we took a lot of trouble to do this in a constructive and respectful manner. Plans were made, promises were given–but little changed and some new problem was always just around the corner. Communication between staff and between managers and staff was a shambles and it was clear that there was bad feeling between staff and managers.

In the end the only thing to do was to move her out. I felt so strongly about the poor quality of my mum’s care that I took PrimeLife to court. I argued that they had failed to use “reasonable care and skill” in looking after my mum–this is the very basic standard set out in the 1982 Supply of Goods and Services act. It applies to the quality of products you buy, and services you pay for. The judge accepted my evidence and agreed with my argument. He ordered PrimeLife to repay a substantial proportion of the fees my mum had paid for her care–reflecting the poor quality of that care.

You can find out more about the poor quality of my mum’s care by clicking on these links. You can also click on Ashlands: a care home with a history to find out about what the Care Quality Commission has had to say about it-including the very latest report published in summer 2016.  And if you’re thinking about some other PrimeLife care home, maybe you need to look at what I’ve found out about the company and the other care homes it owns and manages.