Home care service placed in ‘special measures’ by industry watchdog

A home care service providing support for elderly people living with dementia has been placed in ‘special measures’ by an industry watchdog.

Assisted Care Solutions Limited, in Fifield, was found in breach of seven legal regulations, including the safekeeping of patients, following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in February.

The company was rated ‘inadequate’ in a report from that inspection and warned ‘significant improvements’ to its care were expected.

Assisted Care Solutions provides care at home services for elderly people and young adults living with conditions including dementia, physical disabilities and sensory impairments.

The CQC is the care industry regulator and was assessing Assisted Care for the first time.

Its report rated the service over five categories: two were found to be ‘inadequate’, while three others were deemed ‘requires improvement’.

Inadequate ratings are the lowest grading the CQC can give and mean, according to the regulator’s website, it has had to take enforcement action to remedy.

Considering the safety of people receiving care, whether people were ‘protected from abuse and avoidable harm’, the CQC report said: “This key question has been rated inadequate.

“This meant people were not safe and were at risk of avoidable harm.”

Infection prevention and control procedures were not always followed correctly and not all staff had completed relevant training, the CQC report said.

It said: “Some people told us, ‘there are times when gloves aren’t worn, some carers for some reason don’t wear gloves.”

“A relative told us, ‘99% of the time I see them wearing gloves’, and another person told us, ‘yes, they do wear gloves and aprons.

“'But I haven't seen them wash their hands I can only assume they do',”

Inspectors also identified problems with medicine management, including lacking procedures for when people refused medication or when medication was missed.

The report said: “For example, one person’s weekly pain patch was not administered at all on one occasion due to the medicines not being available.

“This meant the person missed a weekly dose of this medicine."

It added: “There was no clear evidence how this error was managed.”

Leadership at the company also drew criticism in the CQC report and was rated ‘inadequate’.

“This meant there were widespread and significant shortfalls in leadership,” the report said.

“Leaders and the culture they created did not assure the delivery of high-quality care.”

The report did say people receiving care had ‘expressed that they were generally happy with their care’.

It said people and their relatives ‘were positive about staff being kind, caring and respectful’ and felt ‘staff upheld people's privacy and responded in a way that maintained their dignity’.

Discussing the CQC report, Assisted Care Solutions director Ian Yates said 'there’s nothing wrong with what we do, we don’t have any complaints'.

Mr Yates said he was disappointed the CQC report had been published, having understood a June 10 deadline to make improvements was in place. 

“We’ve put the provisions in place to improve on the matters that they [the CQC] weren’t happy with,” he said.  

Mr Yates said discussions with the CQC were ongoing following its report as he believes 'they haven't given us the time we were meant to have'.