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A Holloway care home has been warned it could face closure by watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Inspectors, who made two unannounced visits to St Mungo’s Broadway in November, raised concerns about low standards of cleanliness, lack of staff and resources and poor leadership. They put the home in “special measures”. The Hilldrop Road care home accommodates 29 people with a history of alcohol misuse, homelessness and mental health conditions.

One staff member said they had been forced to wash a resident with washing-up liquid in the bath. Another said: “I work weekends and I get to work and a resident has had an accident and there is faeces on the floor. There is no proper cleaning materials in place. All the managers discuss is cutting costs.”

In the CQC report, the centre’s deputy manager said there were too few staff, adding: “No, it’s not commensurate with the size of the project and complexity of the clients.”

St Mungo’s chief executive Howard Sinclair said: “This inspection highlighted areas where we fell below the standard expected of us. This was deeply disappointing and we took immediate action, in particular to remedy cleaning problems, verify one person’s DBS status and offer more leadership support.

“We also resolved a one-off problem around the delivery of water bottles at the time of the inspection. We are pleased the CQC accepted our urgent action plan and are updating them monthly on ongoing improvements. We note inspectors saw ‘kind and caring interactions’.”

Services in special measures are kept under review and can be shut down by the CQC if they do not find adequate improvements.