Sleep-in accommodation for staff

[flatcoat1]

Hi! I work with adults with severe physical and learning disabilities and our company was in the NHS until last April, when it went into private hands and the resisential homes were bought by the community care homes dept under the control of the local social services. The private company that took over don't do residential, so the homes had to be converted for supported living at vast expense to the tax payer. They also bought some new properties and converted them, the 1970's bungalow I work in now is one of them and is made suitable accomodation for wheelchair users and and was altered for their needs.

Our service users require 24 hour care which includes seep-ins, but there was little thought given to this and the room we are expected to sleep in, which was the original bathroom, is so small that the door can only be half opened. The room is approx 5ft 6ins x 7ft 6ins and has a 3ft bed which takes up most of it. Our manager insists on also having a small 5 drawer chest of drawers next to the bed for paperwork etc, so there is less than a foot to get between the bed and the chest to get in and out and make the bed (you can only open the drawers 2/3 of the way), and absolutely no room for anything to put your clothes on.

I have trawled the net but can't find the regulations for sleep-in accommodation, but the fact that the door cannot be opened properly really bugs me, I think it is a fire hazard. We are under CQC but as far as I know they only look after residents not staff. I am told to live with it as the place is for the service users not staff, and this is to promote normal living.

Can anyone help? Are they in breach of any regulations and who do I go to, to get things changed?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I have produced the working drawings for a very similar scheme to those that you describe, unfortunately (for you) I do not believe there are any regulations requiring minimum standards for the live-in staff. The fully registered charity that I produced this scheme for (which is now built and received full approval by Building Control and the body responsible for the standards of care home accommodation, I can't remember their name: I guess this was the CQC you mentioned) had an identical ethos to the one you are employed by yourself in that all funds were directed towards the clients and not the staff. The images beneath show the overall first floor plan and a close-up of the staff bedroom. In reality once on site and the radiator was installed beneath the windows there was even less room between the bed and the toilet and the door became a bi-fold door (and they were tiny doors to start with). To be fair though, the staff were not expected to carry out admin in the bedroom but had a (tiny) dedicated worktop just off the kitchen on the ground floor.

Untitled

• freddiemercurystwin
• 28 Mar 2010
• 1

Untitled

• freddiemercurystwin
• 28 Mar 2010
• 1

 

[big-all]

surely the fact that a fire escape must must be easily opened and left clear off obsticles comes into play

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Fire regs can be a bit grey on these types of project, we also had automatic doors on the bedroom doors and ceiling hoist track passing through the bedroom (fire) doors! The staff member sleeping over also (technically) had a responsibility to ensure the 'clients' were safe so staying in their room wasn't really an option unless the flames were licking their bedroom door.