A CARE boss has apologised for a ‘fundamental failing’ after allegations that carers for his company went into homes without criminal background checks.

Nick Christodoulou, who runs Bloomsbury Worcestershire, admitted that this year a former carer went into local properties before passing a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Former workers at the company previously told the Worcester News they knew of several colleagues who had gone into homes alone without DBS checks.

A new group of whistle-blowers are now claiming that the company provided inadequate training to staff and overworked them.

One ex-employee, who joined the company in 2016, said: “I worked six days in a row for 15 hours a day.

“It made me ill working there. I left last year, it was the stress of it.

“They only count the hours when you are at the homes, not the time you spend getting to the calls.”

The former worker claimed her superiors twice told her to leave injured clients, who had fallen over, instead of waiting for ambulances to arrive at their Malvern properties.

The whistle-blower also raised concerns about the lack of training provided to staff.

She said: “All I had was a three-hour induction, they tell you how to fill in medication forms. You should have a two-day course which shows you what the medications are.”

The ex-employee claimed one carer at the company taught workers manual handling, including how to use hoists, despite not having the the qualification herself.

She also corroborated claims in yesterday’s Worcester News that carers were going into homes before being cleared by the DBS.

The former carer added: “We were told that if they passed a Safeguarding Of Vulnerable Adults (SOVA) test they were allowed to go out on calls. Sometimes alone.”

One ex-employee also said she was not paid while travelling to and from jobs and that she knew workers who took their children into clients’ homes.

Another whistle-blower said she worked for six months for Bloomsbury without a DBS, visiting around four homes a day on her own.

She claimed she only took three half-days off work in 10 months, echoing other workers’ complaints about being overworked.

Addressing claims that staff worked without DBSs, Mr Christodoulou, CEO of Bloomsbury Home Care, said: “We have made absolutely sure anyone working for us currently has a valid DBS check.

“That one person [who worked without a DBS] was a fundamental failing on our part. It should never have happened.

“I’d like to apologise for that. There was a risk of harm.”

Speaking about the latest allegations, Mr Christodoulou said: “The induction training course is four days long. That’s been going on for the two-and-a-half years we have been in Worcestershire.

“Staff can work the amount of hours they want to work in a week. You have some doing 10 hours a week and some doing a 50-hour week.”

He said staff are sometimes asked to cover for sick colleagues, however they are never forced to.

The CEO added that workers are paid a sufficient wage to cover travel time and insisted that all employees delivering moving and handling training were qualified.

He said it was against company policy for carers to leave a client when an ambulance has been called.

Mr Christodoulou added: "We would either find another employee to complete the round or ring the customer and say they would be late."

The CEO previously said workers can only go into homes without DBSs if they have passed a SOVA test - and are accompanied by an employee with a DBS - or if they have a current DBS from a similar industry.

He found no other cases of workers going into homes alone without DBSs and said carers were not allowed to take children into properties.