Loading
Date of assessment: 27 January 2026 to 6 February 2026. We announced the assessment on 26 January 2026 and carried out visits to the office on 27 and 29 January 2026. The service is a domiciliary care agency and provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone was receiving personal care. CQC only inspects where people are receiving the regulated activity personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this assessment 108 people were receiving support with personal care. The assessment was prompted due to ongoing concerns being received regarding the management of the service, and to follow up on our previous assessment completed in June 2025, when the service was rated inadequate. At this assessment we found breaches of 6 regulations relating to person-centred care, gaining consent, safe care and treatment, good governance, staffing and fit and proper persons employed. Since our last assessment in June 2025, a new Nominated Individual had taken over responsibilities for the service. Following this transition, a new manager was appointed to work alongside the existing management team. However, over a short period of time the majority of the management team had left the service. This meant the new manager and 1 care co-ordinator were left to oversee the care of 108 people. This presented a significant risk due to the manager being relatively new and not being aware of people’s needs, the systems in place or of staff skills and knowledge. Despite these concerns, the provider had failed to implement contingency plans to ensure continued management oversight of the service and robust business continuity plans. This meant there was a risk people would not receive the care they required in the event of further breakdown of the management team or an emergency situation. There was a lack of quality assurance measures to identify and address concerns and to ensure action was taken. Whilst the manager acknowledged significant improvements to the service were required, the provider had failed to implement an effective and detailed improvement plan to identify shortfalls, prioritise actions and embed learning. Although people had support plans in place, these lacked guidance for staff regarding people’s care and information about health conditions, communication needs, risks to their safety, and end of life care planning. Information regarding people’s life histories and things which were important to them was not consistently recorded. These concerns presented a barrier to people receiving safe, effective and responsive care from staff they trusted. The provider was not compliant with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). People’s capacity to make decisions were not always decision specific and best interests’ decisions were not completed in line with MCA principles. Recruitment practices were not robust which put people at risk of being supported by staff who were not suitable. Staff felt there had been some improvement in the way the service was managed although there were on-going concerns regarding how they were able to share feedback in a transparent way. The manager told us they were working with staff to establish trust and reporting protocols. This service remains in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provides 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 the care they provide. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.
npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-3532405824.Date of assessment: 17 June to 19 June 2025. The service is a domiciliary care agency providing care to older people, younger adults, people living with dementia, learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, sensory impairments and substance misuse problems, living in their own homes. This inspection was prompted due to concerns we had received about the management of the service. This inspection found the provider to be in breach of 6 legal regulations relating to the need for consent, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, governance, staffing and recruitment. The provider did not have an effective quality assurance and governance system in place. This had resulted in shortfalls that placed the people who use the service at risk of harm. At the time of our visit the service was led by 2 registered managers. The provider did not ensure all risks to people had been identified and mitigated. Where risks had been identified, the management of them was poor. Care plans lacked detailed information which meant there was a risk people may not be supported according to their needs. The provider’s recruitment systems and processes were inadequate and not robust to ensure all available information was gathered appropriately, and to confirm fit and proper staff were employed. This meant people were at risk of being supported by unsuitable staff. We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure 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 they provide. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.
npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-3532405824.npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-3532405824.npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-3532405824.