The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Radis Community Care (Caroline Square) inadequate and placed it in special measures, following an inspection in January and February.
Radis Community Care (Caroline Square), run by G P Homecare Limited, is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults living in their own homes. The service was providing personal care to 27 people at the time of this inspection.
This was the first inspection under its current owner. The service has been rated as inadequate overall, and for being safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
The service has been placed in special measures which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made. CQC also issued four warning notices following the inspection to focus their attention on making widespread improvements around safe care and treatment, consent, safeguarding, and the management of the service.
Neil Cox, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said:
“When we inspected Radis Community Care (Caroline Square), we found ineffective leadership had led to a poor culture and shortfalls in the standard of care provided.
“Leaders didn’t have good processes in place to monitor the service and ensure people received high quality care. They weren’t aware of issues with people’s care and treatment, auditing the service where they needed to, or making sure staff had the right skills and training to meet people’s needs.
“Staff didn’t always recognise or report potential abuse and hadn’t escalated safety concerns when they should, which put people at risk of harm. One person had lost consciousness during personal care on two occasions, but this hadn’t been reported. Leaders didn’t always investigate incidents or share learnings with staff to make improvements.
“The service didn’t update people’s care plans so staff lacked key information about their risks and how to address them. This included when people’s medical needs changed and they needed support with catheter care or choking risks.
“We also found staff didn’t always treat people with kindness and compassion or provide them with safe, person-centred care. People told us some staff were rude, had used derogatory language, and left them without support to go to the toilet. This is unacceptable.
“Staff didn’t work well together as a team, and this had a detrimental effect on people’s care. Staff told us there was a poor culture and issues with bullying and distrust. A new manager was aware of the issue and working to make the service more inclusive, but changes hadn’t been embedded yet.
“We have told Radis Community Care (Caroline Square) where immediate and widespread improvements are needed and have used our regulatory powers by issuing four warning notices and placing them in special measures to address this. We’ll continue to closely monitor the service to keep people safe and will return to reinspect.”
Inspectors found:
- Risks to people’s health, safety and wellbeing had not always been identified or addressed.
- Medicine records were incomplete and inconsistent across systems. Some people had not received their medicines as prescribed.
- Leaders had not ensured there were enough staff to meet people’s needs.
- Staff did not demonstrate they assessed environmental risks or carried out equipment safety checks.
- Leaders were not working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act to ensure people understood their care so they could give informed consent.
- People did not feel able to raise concerns or have confidence their feedback would be acted upon.
- The service did not always work well with partner organisations to ensure people received good care.
However:
- Some people and their relatives gave positive feedback on the service and spoke about improved confidence in the new management team.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the coming days.