David Beattie was contacted by the owner of a large Nursing and Care Home located in the South West. The Home had just had a poor CQC inspection and the Council had brought in their Crisis Support Team to help the Home. The Registered Manager was dismissed by the owner shortly after the inspection and prior to David’s arrival.
On David’s first day at the Home, it became apparent that the concerns at the Home were significantly worse than he’d initially been told. By the 3rd or 4th day of that week, David had concluded that the Home was systemically damaged to a level that he’d only experienced once or twice before in a career filled with many instances of very successful crisis management.
The situation was that extreme that it couldn’t be resolved by one person. David brought in two senior nurses to assist him. David worked at the Home for the next 7 months, and the two senior nurses worked alongside David for the next 6 months and 3 months respectively.
The Home had been placed in Whole Service Safeguarding by the Council and all admissions had been banned. The CQC inspector informed David that if it wasn’t for his presence and that of his nursing colleagues, and them making rapid and focused change, that CQC would have submitted a Notice of Proposal to deregister the Home.
Given the scale of the problems at the Home, at every level and in every department, the Home needed a full “re-boot”. David and his colleagues set about making these changes. The improvements and changes David and his team implemented were material and rapid. Within a few months, the embargo had been lifted, and the Council was significantly more relaxed about the Home, as was CQC.
After about 5.5 months on-site, with the crisis resolved and the Home functioning significantly better, David informed the owners that he would be leaving, giving 6 weeks notice.
Shortly before David left the Home, he received this unsolicited comment by email from one of the Council’s Safeguarding managers:
“I think you’ve done a fantastic job. It’s been great to see what you’ve done – impressive and you’ve definitely saved the home from major scandal!”
The Owners of the Home were so impressed with the work David had done, that they signed up to the Complete Care Business solution that David and Care Ideals offer to all social care providers.