Hundreds of UK hotels fail food hygiene inspections

Hundreds of hotels in Britain have failed their food hygiene inspections, including establishments with five- and four-star ratings and one with two AA rosettes.

In total, 652 hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs failed their latest food safety inspections for reasons including inspectors discovering seafood past its expiry date, raw meat stored next to sauces and high-risk food stored without temperature controls, according to a survey conducted by Which? Travel.

Included in this number were 19 hotels that were given a zero rating, the lowest possible score.

Among those with failing food hygiene scores was the five-star Royal Horseguards hotel in London and the four-star Novotel hotel in Birmingham, which were both given scores of two. The Novotel received the score for storing “high risk food … out of temperature control”.

The four-star Imperial Hotel in Norfolk, which in 2015 was awarded the Visit England Rose, recognising excellent service, and the Visit England breakfast award, was given a score of zero in October 2016, due to inspectors’ concerns relating to the production of liver paté on the site and lack of paperwork. The owner of the hotel, Nick Mobbs, said the hotel was due to be reinspected next month and he anticipated an improved score.

Other hotels with failing grades include the four-star Copthorne Hotel in Birmingham, which was given a score of one after inspectors found raw meat stored next to sauces and out-of-date seafood. Best Western’s Dean Court Hotel in York, which has two AA rosettes, was was given a food hygiene rating of one.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) ranks all food providers with a score of zero to five after an inspection conducted by officers from local authorities. Food safety officers consider the condition and structure of the building and record-keeping as well as how hygienically food is handled by staff.

A zero rating signifies that the establishment “urgently requires improvement”. Between zero and two is considered a failing grade, and three to five is satisfactory. In Scotland, businesses are given a score of either “pass” or “improvement required”.

Businesses are not required to display their food hygiene scores in England and Scotland. In November 2013, Wales made it mandatory for food establishments to publicly display their ratings, which led to a significant improvement in safety. This mandatory display policy was introduced in Northern Ireland on 7 October.

There were calls for the introduction of legislation requiring businesses to display their hygiene scores in England in September last year after a Guardian investigation found that one in seven takeaways had failed their most recent hygiene inspection.

“I’m certainly very supportive of introducing [a policy of mandatory display],” Clive Betts, Labour MP for Sheffield South East and chair of the community and local government select committee, said at the time. “What drives businesses is improving their profits and bad scores are going to turn customers away, so there will be a real incentive for businesses to improve their score.”

There is strong public support for a system by which businesses would be forced to display their food hygiene ratings. According to an NFU Mutual report into food hygiene ratings, 88% of people are in favour of a law that required the compulsory display of rating stickers and 73% of people would turn away and eat somewhere else if they saw that a business had a score of two or below.

“All food businesses, including hotels, should be able to achieve a the top food hygiene rating of five,” said a spokesman for the FSA. “The FSA remains committed to seeing the mandatory display of food hygiene ratings introduced in England. As the Which? study illustrates, mandatory display will be an added incentive for businesses with poorer standards to improve.”

Best Western said the Dean Court Hotel’s score of one out of five was due to “administrative oversight and clerical error”.

A spokeswoman said: “We are absolutely confident that the result had nothing to with the food hygiene standards of the hotel, of which they have always proudly scored the maximum of five out of five. The hotel is currently waiting for another inspection and has actively encouraged the York environmental health officer team to expedite this as soon as their resources allow.”

A spokeswoman for the Royal Horseguards Hotel said: “When the Food Safety Department of the City of Westminster City Council visited the hotel in March 2016 we took its findings very seriously. A new senior management team immediately took action to improve standards to the level our staff and customers expect. We also commissioned NSF, a global leader in health and safety, to conduct additional inspections in July and November 2016.

“These independent reports found significant improvements had been made by the new hotel team and described the kitchen as being ‘exceptionally clean and well-maintained’ during an unannounced audit.”

A spokesman for the Birmingham Copthorne said: “The safety of our guests, which naturally includes food safety, is our primary concern. A five food safety rating, which is what all Copthorne hotels aim to achieve, had been in place at Birmingham Copthorne for several years prior to a routine, unannounced environmental health inspection of the hotel’s kitchen on June 8 last year.

“The visit occurred at a time when standard processes had been disrupted temporarily by a change in the kitchen team. The general manager took immediate action to remedy the faults identified and requested a return visit by environmental health inspectors at the earliest opportunity, permissible under the food hygiene rating scheme rules, which would have been September 7, 2016. At the time of writing this, a formal visit has not yet been made.”

A spokesman for the Novotel Birmingham Centre hotel said: “We took immediate action to correct the issues raised from the inspection. We are currently in the process of applying for re-certification.”

Hundreds of UK hotels fail food hygiene inspections

Hospitals and care homes fail food safety inspections

More than 500 care providers in the UK, including 19 hospitals and other NHS facilities, have failed hygiene and food safety inspections, Guardian analysis reveals.

Food Standards Agency (FSA) data shows that care homes fail to meet food hygiene standards more than any other type of care provider, with more than 200 residential, nursing and care homes receiving low grades at their latest food safety inspections.

This was closely followed by nurseries, childcare centres, playgroups and out-of-school care providers, more than 200 of which failed to meet hygiene standards, as well as a handful of hospices, homeless shelters, churches and youth centres.

The FSA ranks all food providers, giving them a score of zero to five. Zero means the establishment “urgently requires improvement”, one or two is considered a failing grade, and three to five is satisfactory.

An overwhelming majority (more than 98%) of hospitals and other care providers achieve a food hygiene rating of three or better. Despite this overall success, Michael Harding, a food hygiene rating scheme support officer at the FSA, said any instance of a care organisation receiving a low score was “a cause for concern”, due to the fact that vulnerable people, including children, older people and people who are ill, were more likely to use their services.

“The food safety officer will be taking the necessary action to ensure that the issues identified at caring premises with a lower rating are addressed and that vulnerable people are not put at risk,” he said.

Eight care providers still in operation scored zero, including six residential care homes, one nursery and one after-school care facility, which has since stopped preparing food for children.

A ninth, Fairy Tales day nursery in Glen Parva, Leicestershire, received a score of zero in May after inspectors found a mouse infestation. The nursery closed and has since reopened under new management. The new business is yet to be inspected, but a spokesman from Blaby district council, which conducts inspections in the area, said Ofsted visited the site in mid-August and confirmed that it was clean and tidy with no evidence of mice.

The Stay and Play after-school care service at Millbrook primary school in Newport, south Wales, scored a zero rating in June after it provided high-risk food, such as ham and salad wraps, despite not having the facilities to safely prepare them, Newport city council’s environmental health team said. The centre has since stopped serving food that requires preparation and gives children cereal or biscuits instead.

Several care homes were given zero ratings for issues including mouldy and expired food found in fridges, evidence of cross-contamination between raw and cooked food, lack of hand-washing facilities, poor cooking equipment and no food safety management documentation.

Businesses awarded a zero rating are either immediately shut down or given 28 days to tackle urgent issues, with visits to check that work has been carried out. They can then either pay £160 to be rescored or wait until their next scheduled assessment, usually about six months later, to potentially be given a new score.

Nineteen hospitals nationwide received scores of between zero and two, or “improvement required” in the case of Scotland, which uses a different grading system.

Hand washing is an important factor in effective hygiene and limiting the transfer of harmful bacteria. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

According to the FSA, the hospital inspections look at meals served in canteens as well as those served to patients, but do not cover independent retailers based at hospitals, which are inspected separately.

In almost all cases, spokespeople for the low-scoring hospitals and the councils that inspected them said the hospital administrations had taken steps to improve food safety.

Eight hospitals in Scotland received the grade of “improvement required”, in some cases because of repeated minor contraventions, such as chipped plaster on kitchen walls, water damage on floor coverings and the lack of a thermometer to monitor fridge temperatures.

One of these hospitals, Albyn hospital in Aberdeen, a 30-bed private hospital run by BMI Healthcare, received a rating of “improvement required” in May, with the food safety inspector citing issues with cleanliness, temperature control and paperwork. The inspector also mentioned concerns with cross-contamination from the storage of raw and cooked foods together, use of the same aprons by staff throughout the day and in particular the use of the same machine to vacuum-pack raw food, such as sausages, and cooked food, such as chicken and smoked salmon.

“I am extremely concerned that … the vacuum packer was being used for ready-to-eat foods,” the inspector wrote in their report. “Your customers are patients of the hospital and as such have heightened vulnerability and may be immunocompromised [have a weakened immune system].”

Stuart Storrie, the interim executive director of BMI Healthcare, said that since the inspection the company had worked with suppliers and staff to “correct every single one of the problems cited in the report” and he was confident they had addressed all issues raised.

Two hospitals in Birmingham received failing grades at their inspections in March. The Royal Orthopaedic and West Heath hospitals were awarded scores of two and one respectively.

The catering company that prepares food for two units at Kingsley Green’s NHS site in Shenley, Hertfordshire – Oak unit, a 10-bed psychiatric intensive care facility, and Beech unit, a 15-bed rehabilitation ward – received a score of one in December 2015. Another inspection of the wards was imminent, St Albans city and district council said.

An NHS eating disorder unit in Stockton-on-Tees was given a score of one in March 2015. The facility runs shopping and cooking workshops with clients, and an inspection found that during these activities, there were problems with food hygiene, such as hand washing and not wearing aprons.

A spokesperson for the NHS trust said that since the inspection, it had had further talks with inspectors and put in place “robust actions” to improve food safety.

Hospitals and care homes fail food safety inspections

Care property inspections are futile | Roy Lilley

Link to video: Care residence mistreatment filmed on hidden camera for BBC’s Panorama

The horrific standards of elderly care exposed by the BBC’s Panorama on Wednesday should have place paid to any notion that it is attainable to inspect top quality into a support – a concept that has anyway been made redundant by businesses and service industries given that management guru W Edwards Deming denounced the idea in the mid-1960s.

The folly of relying on inspection as both a marker or maker of quality has considering that been confirmed by a distinguished chain of management academics. The Panorama programme highlighted the futility of inspection in care houses, but the NHS has persisted with a high quality regulator for 14 many years: the Care Quality Commission has been exposed as little more than a spectator in the delivery of secure care.

The programme exposed that CQC inspectors had accepted the home exactly where savage abuse took place. The CQC’s chief inspector, Andrea Sutcliffe, stated: “I’m shocked and really angry about what Panorama have identified.” An outsider would be shocked insiders know the appalling circumstances in a lot of CQC-registered houses.

It has emerged that the CQC is taking twelve,000 actions for care-property top quality failures, and is mired in an growing pile of hundreds of legal actions, which is additional to each and every week. The CQC arrives too late, has too handful of teeth and acts with ponderous bureaucracy.

Arrive, examine and discover almost everything is Ok: you’ve wasted your time. Arrive and factors are a dangerous mess: it is also late. Inspection does nothing at all to make care residences much better, never ever thoughts safer.

In excess of the many years, the CQC has given us collegiate inspection, rigorous inspection, academic inspection, light-touch inspection and the most current, “intelligent deep-dive” inspection. What it has not given us is safe care residences – but this yr it will give us a bill in the area of £200m, for its running fees.

The CQC is irrelevant in the landscape of care, and as a solution exists only in the minds of ministers with an eye on the newspapers. Norman Lamb, the care minister, looks shell-shocked by events and bewildered by his activity. There is far more than a hint of Uriah Heep about him. The CQC, if it were honest, would go to ministers and say this is a duty beyond our reach and resource. If inspection were the answer, then an inspector would have to be present at each care property 24/7. This is the incorrect model to promise safety, never ever thoughts top quality.

Caring for the frail elderly is a labour of enjoy – and hard labour at that. It is demanding work requiring large skill that depends on careful training and continuing skilled improvement. Caring for residents with dementia is in a class of its very own. It is a professional function. These are not jobs to be left with the lowest paid and the poorest managed at the bottom of the heap.

Changes to the minimal wage for care workers rules on ownership to make sure that care properties never ever get also huge to fail limits to the working hours of care givers to avoid burnout sealed CCTV units available only to relatives and carers and mandated care-staff-patient ratios: all these are elements that would enhance the probabilities of secure care. All these are the modifications we ought to insist on.

High quality is made in the boardroom, and if firms will not consider their responsibilities seriously, the law ought to assist sharpen their target. A fit-and-correct-individual test for all directors is good adequate for football’s Premier League, and it need to be great enough for your granny in a care house.

If ministers proceed to see the CQC as their get-out-of-jail card – saying “We will not tolerate bad care and we’ll send in the inspectors”, rather of comprehending and eradicating the brings about of bad care – they will end up with as many inspectors as there are care properties.

Inspection hides poor practice, and firms grow to be a lot more concerned with the regulator than with residents and family members. Wise investment, sharing ideal practice, highlighting what performs and leveraging on good results – that is what delivers for sufferers. Inspection never will.

Care property inspections are futile | Roy Lilley

Ofsted inspections and targets harming teachers" psychological overall health, finds survey

Teachers are juggling ‘unacceptable workloads’, Mary Bousted, head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, will warn at her union’s conference this week. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters

A relentless inspection regime and culture of target-setting is damaging teachers’ mental well being, with many reporting anxiety and exhaustion, a survey by a teaching union has found.

Much more than half (fifty five%) of individuals questioned by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) say operate pressures are obtaining a detrimental impact on their psychological wellbeing, even though virtually 4 in ten have noticed a rise in mental well being troubles amongst colleagues over the previous two many years.

Of those teachers who did really feel their task had broken their mental overall health, a lot of reported encountering pressure (80%), exhaustion (69%), disturbed rest patterns (66%), nervousness (57%) and headaches (47%). Nearly a single in 3 stated it had impacted their appetite.

The survey is released as the ATL starts its annual conference in Manchester, in which the union’s standard secretary, Mary Bousted, will warn that teachers are juggling “unacceptable workloads”.

“Schooling specialists do much more unpaid overtime than any other group and are put beneath continual extreme pressure to meet targets, with excessive observation, modifications in the curriculum and Ofsted inspections,” she said over the weekend.

“There are in-college pressures brought on by Ofsted – pressures place upon teachers by college leaders to make sure that students show progress. There are demands for data, demands for lesson preparing – it really is as though practically nothing is done except if it’s written down.”

The stigma connected to mental overall health issues means several are afraid to inform their colleges, says the survey. More than two-thirds (68%) of teachers who reported experiencing psychological overall health issues explained they decided to hide it from their employers. Teachers will warn on Monday morning that 1 of the major triggers of anxiety in colleges – Ofsted – has misplaced practically all credibility. Robin Bevan, headteacher of Southend Boys’ Grammar, will tell the conference that the organisation “is no longer just disliked, now disdained” and propose a movement calling for an inspection charter for the regulator, exactly where all judgments are subject to a nationwide programme of dependability sampling.

“The whole discourse around Ofsted has altered,” stated Bousted, who is also expected to criticise Ofsted in her closing speech on Wednesday. “The company can no longer sail by means of insouciantly pretending that there’s no difficulty with the high quality manage of its inspections, nor with its methodology.”

The ATL did not take component in the most current strike action but says morale amid its members is minimal. A lecturer from a university in Manchester advised the survey: “Perform eats into every factor of a teacher’s existence …Teachers are above-worked, stressed and unhappy. The occupation is full of sick-well being and tiredness.”

Ofsted inspections and targets harming teachers" psychological overall health, finds survey

Care residences have failed one particular in 3 inspections given that 2010

“Our mindset requirements to change”, stated Ms Lesley. “The assumption should be that if a care property is no very good, then our initial priority ought to be to protect the residents, not give the benefit of doubt to the managers and let the property to stay open”.

In 2010, a new regulatory technique was launched that meant each and every property had to register with the Care Top quality Commission (CQC) for inspection at least as soon as a year.

In 2011, care homes failed 2811 of 6901 published inspections (41 per cent). This fell to to 5420 of 16384 – 33 per cent in 2012 – and figures for 2013 present that 6814 of 23152 inspections resulted in failure – 29 per cent.

One residence, Shouldham Hall Nursing Home in Norfolk, which cares for 48 older folks, some with psychological well being requirements, remains open despite getting never ever passed a single a single of its 9 published inspections considering that 2011.

The home has registered 45 considerations in less than three many years, 25 of them Key – the most serious class logged by regulators.

Some of the failings listed in its official CQC reports at the residence from earlier many years included unwashed residents, a substantial incidence of falls and brown smears on walls and floors. In 2011 one inspector witnessed flies crawling in excess of a wounded dementia patient.

Its most latest inspection report, published in September 2013, exhibits that enhancements had been created but states that action needs to be taken to boost the care and welfare of men and women who use services, the security of the premises and monitoring the high quality of the support provision. It remains non-complaint.

Latest accounts filed at Companies Residence present that Hollycare Group Limited, the parent firm that owns Shouldham Hall and 3 other care properties, produced a reduction of £320,844 for the financial year to 31 March 2013.

Holmwood Home in Westbury on Trym – a 41-resident nursing house – has passed just three of its eight CQC inspections considering that 2011 and is presently non-compliant with regulations, having failed all five ‘essential’ criteria in its most current report.

Steve Norman’s father, Kenneth, was a resident at the care residence prior to he died 3 years in the past.

“My father died in hospital following the poor care he received in the nursing residence”, explained Mr Norman, fifty five, who lives in Shirehampton.

“Inspectors have identified tons of failings at the residence, but they have not done anything. It really is not progressed in 3 years. It is failing on all counts.

“The CQC are a waste of time and funds. They preserve providing the residence an additional likelihood and you have to inquire what it takes to shut someplace down.”

Partridge Care Centre in Harlow, Essex, has just lately passed its December 2013 inspection soon after failing its previous seven consecutive inspections.

Eilieen Jarvis, who lived in the 79-resident house in 2011, suffered from dementia and necessary expert care – but when she fell above and broke her hip it was two hours ahead of personnel at the house called the emergency services.

Sue Robins, 68, of Essex, explained that her mother’s therapy following the damage was a “full shambles”.

Eileen Jarvis died in hospital aged 94 just months right after the fall.

Mrs Robins explained: “We have been completely ignored and kept in the dark.

“They didn’t inform us anything which was a genuine be concerned.

“We found ourselves battling day in day out for answers as to why she was left on her own and how this was allowed to occur.

“It was evident that action essential to be taken at the care residence.

“We liked all the staff but the dealings with the management had been extremely bad.

“They never ever seemed to bother to do items until finally they have been forced into it which is a actually be concerned for the sufferers.”

In total the care residence has failed nine of its eleven published inspections since 2010.

The Prince of Wales Nursing property in Solihull has failed 6 of eight inspections since 2011, amassing a total of forty small, moderate and main concerns in its inspection reviews.

The house was briefly compliant with laws in 2012, but following two failed inspections in 2013 it is when yet again failing.

Gary Fitzgerald, of charity Action On Elder Abuse, mentioned that lifestyle in a substandard care house is like serving a “prison sentence”.

He said: “If you have got very frail outdated individuals residing in environments that are dispiriting to them then you have to inquire reasonably whether or not the decision to keep those places open is in the very best interests of people individuals.”

The information was obtained by the Telegraph from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent body accountable for requirements, which currently regulates much more than sixteen,000 care houses, overseeing the care of hundreds of 1000′s of residents.

In the course of an inspection, which is constantly unannounced, accredited men and women assess whether a care home meets a single of 16 crucial specifications, logging any Small, Reasonable or Significant Issues as they go, and eventually give the home a rating of compliant or non-compliant.

If a residence fails to meet a single of these vital specifications, the care property is deemed ‘non-compliant’ and fails the inspection.

Andrea Sutcliffe, CQC’s Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care explained: “The decision to cancel a provider’s registration is in no way one we take lightly as it can be quite distressing and disruptive for the residents involved.

“Nevertheless, when a support persistently fails to meet the standards of care and safety needed by law, we will act to use our powers, which can lead to the closure of a house. The individuals who use care providers are always our number one priority.”

“There are a range of actions that we consider based on the level of concern and the risk to those who use the services. These can assortment from telling a provider it has to enhance by a specific date, to issuing fixed penalty notices, to taking enforcement action that, in the end can lead to the closure of a service.”

Ms Sutcliffe also said that the regulator plans to introduce a new ratings method across the Uk grownup social care providers that “will make our judgements clearer than ever just before.”

Akash Soni, the Managing Director of Shouldham Hall, stated: “Whilst Shouldham Hall acknowledges its poor record of compliance with CQC in excess of current years, it believes that it has made substantial enhancements in its total ranges of support delivery and is assured of obtaining total compliance with all CQC inspections that will take area in 2014.”

Alka Sahnan, the Residence manager for Prince of Wales Nursing Residence, explained: “Since 2010 the provider has entirely cooperated with CQC and disclosed all the data requested.

“Service users are well cared for and no one has ever been at risk. Please note that we are now entirely up to date with the CQC report with only one small item to correct.”

Mr Ghassan Al-Jibouri, owner of Holmwood House Nursing Property, explained: “Sometimes we may get factors wrong, in frequent with each care house or hospital and this could end result in the Care High quality Commission focussing a lot more on us than on other residences for a whilst. We always consider action promptly, and we take any complaint or compliance situation significantly.

“All our staff care very significantly about every single resident.

“It is not the case that Mr Kenneth Norman acquired poor care at Holmwood House. He came to us right after Stephen Norman had complained about the care his father had received at one more nursing property in the spot, and Stephen Norman truly wrote a letter to the regional press saying that Holmwood Residence was like heaven for his father.”

“Other households do not recognise Mr Norman’s description of Holmwood Residence.”

A spokesperson for Rushcliffe Care Limited, which owns Partridge Care Centre, mentioned:

“We have constantly worked with our spouse agencies, as properly as residents, to advertise a compliant home as nicely as to offer a top quality service.

“We will not react to personal situations by means of the media and we would refer you yet again to the final CQC report, which demonstrates compliance.”

Care residences have failed one particular in 3 inspections given that 2010