The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has downgraded the overall rating for West Hill Care Home in Dartford, Kent, from requires improvement to inadequate. It has placed the home into special measures to protect people following an inspection in October and November 2025.
West Hill Care Home is a nursing home for up to 77 older people, including people living with dementia.
CQC carried out this inspection in response to concerns received about people’s care and treatment and to follow up on improvements which inspectors told leaders to make at a previous inspection.
Inspectors found that care had deteriorated, and the service was in breach of four regulations relating to the provision of safe care and treatment, safeguarding people from abuse, treating people with dignity and respect and the overall management of the service.
CQC has placed the service into special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while they make improvements. Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.
CQC has begun the process of taking further regulatory action to address the concerns, which West Hill Care Home Limited has the right to appeal.
Catriona Eglinton, CQC’s deputy director for the South East, said:
“When we returned to West Hill, we were concerned to find a further deterioration in the quality of care being provided since we last inspected.
“We found a poor culture across the entire service, which had not been recognised or addressed by leaders. This had created an unsafe environment for people living there, and leaders had no clear, effective plan to improve the situation.
“Our inspectors had significant concerns about gaps in staff training and saw several worrying examples of staff not having the required skills to provide safe and dignified care. For example, staff were providing people with catheter support despite having no training in how to do so safely and effectively. This is clearly unacceptable.
“We found the service was still not identifying and addressing risks, which was putting people at risk of harm. Staff gave someone a banana and they started to eat the skin rather than the fruit. Staff said this had happened before, but adjustments, such as peeling the fruit to ensure the person was safe, had not been made.
“Leaders had also failed to address issues with safeguarding within the home. We saw one person being placed in a special chair to restrict their movement and prevent them from getting up, and staff had not realised this was a form of restraint or assessed whether it was proportionate.
“Care plans often lacked essential information about people’s health conditions, which meant staff were working without the information and guidance they needed to provide safe care. For example, one person with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease had no care plan in place to help staff safely manage their condition.
“We have told West Hill’s leaders exactly where they must make immediate and significant improvements, and we are monitoring the home closely to keep people safe while those changes take place.”
Inspectors found:
- Leaders did not ensure the incident and accident reporting system was effective, and staff failed to report some incidents to the registered manager for several days. This delay prevented timely action to protect people and left them at risk of harm.
- Staff left cleaning chemicals and medicines accessible to people, despite knowing that one person had a history of attempting to ingest chemicals.
- The service did not ensure staff could evacuate people quickly during an emergency. Leaders failed to maintain detailed and up-to-date personal emergency evacuation plans.
- Staff did not always treat people with dignity and respect. For example, when we saw staff supporting someone to eat, the interaction was rushed and staff repeatedly asked the person if they were ready for more food when the person was clearly still chewing.