Liverpool’s Stapely residential and nursing home has received a scathing inspection report from the Care Quality Commission, being rated inadequate overall and in the categories of safety and being well led.
The CQC also said the home required improvement in effectiveness and caring. It considered Stapely good only for its responsiveness.
“There was no effective management and oversight of the service,” the CQC reported.
“The three separate units operated in isolation and there were no systems in place for managers and staff to work together to share good practice and learn from mistakes.”
Recruitment processes were “not safe”, as the appropriate identity and security checks had not always been completed before staff were employed.
In addition, “the safety of the premises and equipment were not managed well. The plans for the continuity of the service in case of emergency were not robust.”
Less than two per cent of the homes inspected by the CQC are rated inadequate overall.
The latest report is a significant downgrade on the 2017 inspection. Then, the overall finding was that the home required improvement but was rated good for effectiveness, responsiveness and caring.
At the time, Stapely trustee Philip Ettinger told the JC he was “100 per cent confident” the home’s next inspection would result in a good overall grade.
Although he remained bullish this week, Mr Ettinger acknowledged: “You can’t expect a diminishing community to fund homes like these.”
He claimed the problem over recruitment practices was “simply a filing issue” and that proper background checks on potential staff had been carried out.
He maintained that residents’ families were “hugely supportive as we deliver a service of high standard”.
After new admissions were halted for a short period, the home’s phones had been “ringing off the hook”, with people “begging us to reopen our doors”.
The latest CQC rating means the service is in special measures, meaning that it will be inspected again within six months.
If there is no improvement, the watchdog “will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service”.
Michelle Hayward, chair of Merseyside Jewish Representative Council, said on Wednesday that the local community was “saddened” by the CQC report.
“The continuing success of Stapely is very important to us and we are all very appreciative of the huge amount of work Philip Ettinger and his team are doing to maintain care and facilities for our most vulnerable family members and friends.
