Care home given reprieve (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)
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Care home given reprieve
9:27am Friday 29th June 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter
The owners of a care home threatened with closure have been given a reprieve while inspectors consider other lines of action.
Twenty elderly residents were moved out of Dannah House, in Wroughton, on Friday after a court application for the home's immediate closure was delayed.
The case was due to be heard by Swindon magistrates on Wednesday, but with all the home's residents relocated on Friday evening, inspectors are investigating other options.
The Commission For Social Care Inspection was prompted to take action because recommendations made in an report in November had not been fully implemented.
There were also reports that standards at the Bakers Road home had fallen further still.
It is understood the commission still plans to get the home closed down but no longer needs the speed of an emergency closure order.
CSCI spokesman Ray Veasey declined to confirm this but said: "Alternative action is now being taken by the commission."
Mr Veasey would not comment on what that action might involve.
The CSCI has an number of options when recommendations and warnings have been ignored. It can issue statutory requirements, as it did following the November inspection.
Formal cautions and prosecutions can also be issued if it believes an offence has been committed.
Registration conditions can be varied and registration can be cancelled, which effectively forces the venue's closure.
This is the line the CSCI had been pursuing with Dannah House.
Swindon Council's cabinet member for health, housing and social care, Coun David Renard, said: "I was warned that the strategy of the CSCI might change as the home is now empty because they see no reason to have an emergency closure.
"My understanding is that they are still looking into closure but not as an emergency measure now.
"If the owners seek to put more residents into the home, the commission will revert to the emergency closure."
