The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has put Generations and Companions care service, based in Ellesmere Port, Merseyside into special measures to protect people using this service, after rating them as Inadequate following an inspection in July this year.
Generations and Companions Care Services is a domiciliary care agency supporting people in the Ellesmere Port and Chester area. The service was registered in January 2013 and currently operates from an office address near Ellesmere Port town centre.
We ask five questions, are services; safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Overall, Generations and Companions has been rated as Inadequate.
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:
“People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care. We found that the care provided by Generations and Companions fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide, which is why we have intervened to keep people using this service safe.
“We found that there were no checks to ensure people being employed were appropriately trained, or had even had a background check prior to working with vulnerable people using this service.
We were also particularly concerned there was a risk people were not being given their medicines as prescribed, and medication was not always being given by staff trained to do so.”
Inspectors found that staff did not receive the required induction, training, supervision and support needed to do their jobs properly. New staff did not receive a comprehensive induction and Generations and Companions had no evidence they had ensured that staff were deemed as competent before they worked alone.
The training provided to staff was inconsistent and there was no evidence to demonstrate training in some of the most important parts of their role such as giving medicines, or how to safely move and handle people using the service. This meant there was a risk that staff did not have the knowledge and skills to provide people with safe care and treatment.
Supervisions or spot checks on staff were not carried out on a regular basis; meaning they were not being continually assessed as being confident and competent to carry out their role. Generations and Companions did not consistently complete a staff rota to demonstrate that there was sufficient staff to meet the needs of people that were supported.
Inspectors also found that the safe management of medicines was not in place. There was a risk that people would not get their medicines as prescribed and medication was not always given by staff that had been trained to do so. Some people using the service were also at further risk as they had not given valid consent to their medicines being given.
If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action.
The full report from the inspection can be found here on our website.
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For further information, please contact Kerri James, CQC Regional Engagement Communications Officer by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966.
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