The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Alliance Care Ltd in Birmingham, inadequate, and placed it in special measures following an inspection in August and September.
Alliance Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of inspection, there were 51 people using the service.
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the safety and quality of the service, including concerns about the management of medicines, care calls being missed, and people being neglected.
Following the inspection, the overall rating for the care agency, as well as the areas of safe and well-led are rated inadequate. Effective, caring and responsive are rated requires improvement. The service was previously rated good overall, and for being safe, responsive, effective, caring and well-led.
The service has been placed in special measures which means it will be kept under close review to make sure people are safe and, if CQC do not propose to cancel the provider's registration, there will be a re-inspection to check for significant improvements.
Amanda Lyndon, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said:
“When we inspected Alliance Care Ltd, it was concerning to see such a significant deterioration in the quality of care being provided. Leaders need to prioritise making the necessary improvements, particularly regarding how people’s needs are being met appropriately and safely.
“We saw a lack of oversight regarding safeguarding people from harm and assessing their needs. People use this service to ensure their daily needs are met and its unacceptable that they aren’t getting the level of care they deserve.
“For example, people who were at risk of choking had poorly written care plans which lacked detail for staff on how to modify meals safely. We also saw evidence that people may have been given foods that were unsuitable for their needs which could have placed them at harm.
“We heard that a staff member had raised a concern that a person had experienced several falls, but nothing was updated in their care plan to support them and to prevent further falls from occurring.
“It was also concerning that staff weren’t supported or trained appropriately to support people who became distressed, putting themselves and people using the service at risk of harm.
“We will continue to monitor the service closely to ensure improvements are made. If we are not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action to ensure people are receiving the high standard of care they deserve.”
Inspectors found:
- People's person-centred needs were not effectively identified and planned for by the service
- Governance systems failed produce effective care plans to support people’s health conditions and to highlight and any associated risks
- The provider failed to review accidents, incidents, and safeguarding matters and didn’t learn lessons from these
- People didn’t always feel they were supported in a caring and compassionate way
- Many staff hadn’t received recent training in key areas to enable them to carry out their duties safely
- There were inconsistencies in how well the provider worked with other agencies and supported people to access healthcare
- Training systems had failed to ensure staff had received up to date training, in line with the provider's own policies.
However:
- People and relatives knew who the area manager was and felt able to contact them with any issues or concerns
- People told inspectors that care staff asked for consent before providing care and support
- Some people were very happy with the support they received and spoke highly of the care staff who visited.