Care home for elderly played nursery rhymes on loop

Inspectors visiting a care home for the elderly found it was loudly playing nursery rhymes on loop for up to three hours.

Cressington Court in Liverpool was judged to be "inadequate" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which flagged concerns that "some activities... had a detrimental impact on people's mental wellbeing".

The care industry watchdog said some of the home's 52 residents had dementia and warned the way their money had been managed had left them vulnerable to financial abuse.

In a statement, Lotus Care (Cressington Court) Ltd said it did not agree with the CQC's findings. It said only "one nursery rhyme-style song was played" because a resident liked it.

Inspectors visited the Beechwood Road care home between January and March after safety concerns had been raised.

At the time of the visit, the manager of Cressington Court was not CQC-registered.

Andrew Peck, the CQC's deputy director of adult social care for the region, said there were "significant shortfalls in the way the service was being managed".

Leadership did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care, he added.

Peck said: "We also witnessed some activities which had a detrimental impact on people's mental wellbeing.

"For example, in the ground floor lounge, music was played excessively loudly and there was a three-hour period during which nursery rhymes were played repeatedly."

In a statement given to the Local Democracy Reporting Service a spokesperson for Lotus Care (Cressington Court) Ltd - which runs the home - said they did not agree with the CQC findings and said it was "not accurate to state that nursery rhymes were played repeatedly for a three-hour period".

"Only one nursery rhyme-style song was played, specifically because the resident's care plan identifies that she enjoys that particular song.

"This was a person-centred activity based on her known preferences.

"Following that song, other music was played which was not nursery rhyme music."

Inspectors also found some staff did not know resident's names and did not respect people's privacy or dignity.

This included not intervening when a visiting health professional carried out tasks in the communal lounge.

The report found that staff did not ensure medicines and treatments were safe and met people's needs, and the leadership did not listen to concerns about safety or investigate or report safety events.

Inspectors criticised the decision by management to use an office that they said did not give them regular oversight of day-to-day activities.

The spokesperson for the home rejected this and said during the inspection visit, members of the leadership team "utilised the manager's office to ensure the inspection process could be facilitated efficiently... without causing unnecessary disruption to residents and staff".

They added: "The decision for leaders to remain in the office for parts of the inspection was also made to avoid overwhelming residents, particularly those living with dementia, and to minimise confusion or distress that can arise when multiple unfamiliar people are present in communal areas."

They said leaders remained available throughout the inspection and continued to oversee the service, support staff, and respond to issues as they arose.

"Daily oversight is achieved through regular walkarounds, handovers, supervision, observation of practice, and ongoing engagement with residents, relatives, and staff."

The CQC has placed the care home into special measures and will closely monitor it to ensure residents are safe while improvements are made.

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