A homecare agency which failed to notify the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in line with national requirements has been issued with fines totalling £1,875.
CQC has issued two fixed penalty notices – one to the provider, North Tyneside Council, and one to the manager of North Tyneside Council Domiciliary Care Agency, following their failure to notify the CQC about incidents affecting people receiving care and treatment from the agency.
CQC carried out an announced inspection of the agency on 23 June 2015 as part of their scheduled programme of inspections for 2014/15.
Following a review of care records and discussions with staff, inspectors identified that there had been a failure to inform CQC about a number of people receiving services that had died.
In addition, inspectors found evidence of several incidents that had been referred to, or investigated by, the local authority safeguarding team, but had not been reported to CQC.
Registered providers are legally required to notify CQC without the delay about any service users who have died or serious incidents or events affecting the health safety and wellbeing of people receiving care.
In the light of the failure to meet legally required national standards, CQC has issued fixed penalty notices totalling £1,875.
Debbie Westhead, CQC's Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care in the North, said:
"Every registered provider and manager has a legal duty to ensure that they meet national regulations and to advise CQC of serious incidents and events to enable us to discharge our regulatory responsibilities on behalf of the people who use the service.
"The failures on this occasion to inform CQC of a number of very serious incidents and issues of concern relating to the provision of care, is unacceptable.
"North Tyneside Council have taken prompt action to address our concerns and both fines have now been paid."
The full report detailing findings from CQC's inspection in June 2015 has been published here.
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