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Date of assessment: 3 to 10 December 2025. Unicorn Healthcare Services provides care and support for people in their own homes. Not everyone using the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. The service was supporting 8 people over the age of 65 with personal care at the time of the assessment. This assessment was to follow up on our previous visit in October 2024, where breaches of regulations were identified. There had been sufficient improvement made, and the service was no longer in breach of these regulations. Staff were recruited safely and had received training to equip them for their role. They knew how to protect people from the risk of harm. People's needs were assessed, and care was planned to meet these. The provider reviewed care plans with people and their families to ensure that the service was personalising their care. This ensured the service was meeting both their needs and expectations. Governance systems were in place, although these needed refining and embedding to be fully effective. Lessons were learned, and information shared with staff to support safety and the development of the service.
npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-15308763036.Date of assessment; 29 October 2024 to 5 November 2024. The assessment was completed due to concerns we received about the service. The service has been rated inadequate. We identified 4 breaches of regulations. People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. There were concerns around risk to people and how these were assessed and managed. Support plans and risk assessments were not regularly reviewed to ensure people were receiving care which met their current needs. People were not always protected against the risk of infection; staff did not always have the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) when visiting people at home. Medicines were not always administered safely, and people did not always receive them as prescribed. Staff were not recruited safely and did not always have the qualifications, skills, competencies and experience to carry out their role. The leadership, governance and culture did not promote the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care. The provider did not have consistent leadership and managers, and senior staff were unclear about what their roles were. For instances where CQC have decided to take civil enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and /or appeal have been concluded. The service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of care provided.
npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-15308763036.