A care home for adults with autism and mental health issues has been placed in special measures after an inspection revealed a series of shortfalls.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission found residents at Rock House in Gillingham were banned from buying sweets or fizzy drinks with their annual food allowance and, if they disobeyed, were ordered to pay the money back.

The care watchdog also found they were told they had to have a takeaway on Saturdays even if they didn’t want one and had to ask permission to use communal bathrooms, which were kept locked.

When one person became distressed, staff were instructed to make them sleep in a communal lounge where they could be monitored by CCTV.

The home in Rock Avenue was rated “inadequate” overall by inspectors who found evidence poor leadership had allowed a “closed culture to develop” and people faced “unnecessary restrictions on their daily lives and human rights”.

Rock House, run by PureCare Care Services Limited, is a residential home providing support to autistic adults and adults with mental health conditions or learning disabilities, including manic depression, schizophrenia and bipolar.

A spokesman for the provider said it was “deeply disappointed” with the outcome and while it did not accept all the descriptions given of its services by inspectors it accepted “rapid” improvements were needed and an action plan was now in place to address this.

Andrew Peck, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said: “Staff were trying to provide good care to people but weren’t supported by leaders with the right policies and processes to do this.

“People had very little control over their own lives, including how they accessed areas of the home and managed their food budget.”

He also noted “strict controls” placed on how residents could spend their weekly food allowance due to the absence of on-site catering facilities.

“People weren’t allowed to buy items like sweets or fizzy drinks with their allocated money and were told they had to have a takeaway on Saturdays whether they wanted one or not,” he added.

“If someone spent money on items staff said they weren’t allowed to buy, they were made to pay it back. This is unacceptable.”

Mr Peck said leaders hadn’t “identified or addressed” serious safety concerns.

“When one person became distressed, staff were instructed to have them sleep in a communal lounge where they could be monitored by CCTV - without their consent or any assessment of whether this was in their best interests,” he said.

During the inspection, inspectors found seven breaches of regulations relating to safe, person-centred care and treatment, and respecting people’s privacy and dignity.

This also included how the service sought people’s consent to care, how the home was managed in general, and as well as how the home was managing safeguarding and notifying CQC of incidents.

Serious incidents weren’t reported or investigated properly to prevent them from happening again.

Rooms were sometimes “cluttered and unclean”, medicines were not always managed safely and risks around self-harm were not dealt with properly.

The CQC had previously rated Rock House “good” in its last inspection in March 2022.

It’s now been downgraded to “inadequate” and has been placed into special measures, meaning it will be closely monitored to ensure people are safe while improvements are made.

Mr Peck added: “We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability or mental health conditions the safety, choices, dignity and independence that most people take for granted.

“It was unacceptable that leaders were allowing a culture to exist where people weren’t being given these basic rights.

“We’ve told leaders at Rock House where immediate and significant improvements must be made and we’re monitoring them closely to keep people safe while this happens.

“We won’t hesitate to take further action if it doesn’t.”

We would like to stress that no residents are, or ever have been, restricted by PureCare in terms of what they spend their own personal money on

Responding to the findings, a spokesperson for PureCare said it took the feedback "incredibly seriously" and a "huge amount of work" had already begun into making improvements.

They said a “detailed action plan” was in place, against which it had already made “significant progress”.

This plan has been shared with local authority funders with who the provider says it has been “transparent and open” about the issues raised, and who it will be working closely with to ensure their “satisfaction and confidence”.

With regards to food budgets, the spokesperson added it had reviewed guidance on food budgets and the only items residents could not buy with their allowances were alcohol and tobacco.

“We would like to stress that no residents are, or ever have been, restricted by PureCare in terms of what they spend their own personal money on,” they said.

“All residents have their own en-suite bathrooms and toilets. Where there were locks on communal bathrooms - which were in place due to health and safety concerns around a previous resident - these were removed immediately after CQC’s inspection in January.”

A new system is also in place to ensure all incidents are logged and, where needed, authorities informed, the group said.

The spokesperson added that each resident's care plan had been reviewed and, where necessary, updated to reflect their health needs and consent.