An ex-policewoman has slammed the Government’s care watchdog, claiming that it launched a "witch-hunt" against her because she raised concerns about the quality of its inspections.

Rebecca Prideaux, from Epsom, quit her job at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in May, after just nine months.

She said that inadequate training, inexperienced inspectors and a culture of shying away from making serious criticisms is resulting in failings at care homes going unchecked.

The CQC rejected her criticisms, saying she resigned before qualifying as an inspector and that, in future, it will be recruiting inspectors who are specialists in their field.

"I was almost a scapegoat"

Mrs Prideaux said the CQC "victimised" her after she issued warning notices, requiring urgent action by a date set by the CQC, to the owner of La Luz Residential Home, in Tadworth High Street, in January.

This was one of several homes she inspected while still on probation and without being "signed off as competent" by the watchdog.

She said that when the home's owner, Mr Angel Soto, complained about the warning notices to her manager - who Mrs Prideaux said was new and inexperienced - she was told that she could no longer conduct inspections alone.

The 37-year-old said: "There had been media interest in it and I felt I was almost a scapegoat. 

"I was told I was not competent to inspect on my own until I was signed off.  But all the inspections I had done after completing my induction had been on my own.

"They had picked up on this complaint and made any excuse to push me out."

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Mrs Prideaux inspected La Luz Residential Home in Tadworth and issued four warning notices to its owner, Mr Angel Soto, in January 

Mrs Prideaux said her probationary period was extended, but she quit before she completed it because she believed that the CQC was "telling lies" about her.

She added: "I thought someone, somewhere is on a witch-hunt."

Mrs Prideaux left her job on the beat with Surrey Police after seven years in 2007 to look after her elderly grandparents.

She said she has "always loved care of the elderly" and applied for the £40,000 position as an inspector at the CQC to "have a job which made a difference".

'Failings in dementia care went unreported'

After a 10-week induction, ending in October last year, Mrs Prideaux said she conducted seven inspections on her own, even though she had not completed the requisite number of ‘shadow’ inspections during her training.

But on one of three shadow inspections she did complete, at Appleby House, in Epsom, she said several failings went unreported by the experienced inspector she was with.

Mrs Prideaux, who worked in the North Surrey team of inspectors in the CQC, said: "We mentioned to the staff that there was a strong smell of urine at the home and two of them said they had run out of incontinence pads and were using tissues.  They said they didn’t approach the manager as things weren’t kept confidential. 

"Staff also said that sometimes men and women’s underwear got mixed up.  But they said they thought some people’s views were ‘they have dementia so it doesn’t matter anyway’.

"None of these things were in the report."

A spokesman for Care UK, which owns Appleby House, denied Mrs Prideaux’s claims.

He said: "We do not believe the quality of care provided to residents at the home in September 2012 fell below the required standard in any way not identified by the inspection.

"We encourage all colleagues and residents to give their views to CQC inspectors, as well as to raise any concerns through confidential and independent whistleblowing channels.

"There has never been any evidence, either in CQC’s inspection reports, or our own audits, to suggest that the team did not feel able to raise concerns at the home."

"Colleagues shied away from issuing enforcement"

Mrs Prideaux said another home she inspected alone, Birdscroft Nursing Home, in Ashtead, did not meet any of its essential requirements and that she was surprised when a colleague, who wrote the report into its inspection while Mrs Prideaux was off sick, did not issue any warning notices to the home. 

A CQC spokesman said it "felt that issuing compliance actions was the most proportionate response in this case". 

A compliance action requires a care provider, who has not met all of the CQC's requirements, to write to the CQC setting out how it will comply within a time frame set out by the provider itself.

Mrs Prideaux said: "Some of the homes I inspected, where I suggested enforcement action, actually thanked me as it meant they could improve. 

"But if you’re picked out as someone who isn’t going to tick boxes quietly you’re victimised."

She added: "We were told last year not to do any follow-up inspections as we had to meet certain Government targets.

"75 per cent of my colleagues shied away from issuing enforcement."

'5* hotels and Powerpoint presentations inappropriate for training'

Mrs Prideaux, who no longer works in the care profession, said she felt that "5* hotels and Powerpoint presentations" were inappropriate during her induction and that training must be about "feet on the ground" with managers who can oversee progress.

She added: "There is a pool of bank inspectors who, at the end of the year, do all the inspections the full-time inspectors didn’t have time to do and it’s just a rushed, tick-box exercise."

A CQC spokesman said that Mrs Prideaux’s views are not shared by the "more experienced and specialist inspectors" who worked with her. 

He said: "Mrs Prideaux had not completed her probationary period as an inspector when she resigned from CQC.

"Other new inspectors have been complimentary about the training they received.

"We are changing the way we inspect, particularly to ensure that all inspectors are specialists in the areas they inspect."

He said that the work carried out by all bank inspectors is "checked by CQC managers for quality and consistency" and that they are required to have a minimum of five years’ professional experience in the fields to which they are allocated.

The spokesman said that the CQC induction "is a blended approach to learning and mixes e-learning, taught sessions and work-based learning and IT".

He added: "It is delivered in a way that allows new inspectors to apply what they have been taught back in the work place through ongoing support from their manager and workplace buddy.

"All new inspectors are advised that their learning does not stop once the induction has been completed, and that they should take responsibility for their own development through the one to one process.

"There is also an expectation that inspectors are signed off as competent once their induction or probation is completed."


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