Catherine House

My brother in law was sent to Catherine House in Taunton 3 years ago and we placed him there as it was supposedly moving to a supported living set up which we favoured, however this never happened. Initially we were happy, however after a while things went downhill and from bad to worse with many of the promises made not being met. Whilst the care staff are very good, the same cannot be said of the management. They are slow to make any improvements and do not invest much at all in making the place homely. In the 3 years he was there we met the registered manager just twice, and we received hardly any paperwork relating to payments etc. Communication is dire with many emails simply being ignored, especially when trying to get something done. We had to get other people involved in order to get them to provide basic things such as pictures of food/meals to assist our relative in making and getting his choice. At one stage the staff told us they had very little funds to purchase food and that our relative couldnt have what he chose to eat. The residents purchased a BBQ but it wasnt assembled for many weeks, then there was no gas for it as the owner claimed not to know where to buy any. By the time they bought some gas the summer was over. The number of 1:1 hours care that our relative received was insufficient, despite the council funding him for them, he didnt always receive them. Transport was also a problem as a number of staff didnt drive and the car they had when he first went there was removed. Therefore trips out beyond the town centre were few and far between, very occasionally they would be taken out but when compared to our other carehome experiences, these rarely happened.