The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the Disablement Association of Barking and Dagenham inadequate following an inspection in September.
The Disablement Association of Barking and Dagenham supports people living in their own homes or supported living flats. It provides care to older people, autistic people, and people with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection eight people were receiving personal care.
CQC carried out this inspection after receiving concerns about people receiving unsafe care.
Following this inspection, the rating has dropped from good to inadequate overall, as have the ratings for being safe and well-led. The service’s ratings for being effective, caring, and responsive have dropped from good to requires improvement.
The service is now 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 has also taken additional enforcement action, which will be reported on when legally able to do so.
Jane Ray, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said:
“When we inspected the Disablement Association of Barking and Dagenham, we were very concerned to find leaders lacked oversight of people’s care. This had allowed an unsafe culture to develop, in which routines were more important than people’s needs and preferences.
“While most staff had good relationships with the people they cared for, relatives told us some staff had shouted at people, handled them roughly during personal care, or left them in bed for a long time. We found staff didn’t always recognise neglect or abuse and didn’t know how to report it.
“We saw many people’s care plans and risk assessments also weren’t detailed enough for staff to meet their needs safely.
“People and their relatives also weren’t always involved in planning their care. We found people’s consent wasn’t recorded, which was a risk to people’s human rights.
“We found multiple safeguarding concerns had been raised to the local authority. But the provider hadn’t made enough improvements when we inspected and failed to identify many of the problems we found.
“The provider has since told us they are acting on many of our concerns. We’ll continue to monitor this service closely to make sure these improvements are carried out urgently. If people are not being cared for safely, we won’t hesitate to take further action.”
Inspectors also found:
- People’s care plans didn’t always include their goals. People weren’t supported to maintain and grow their independence where possible
- There weren’t always enough staff to meet people’s needs safely
- Staff put some people to bed as early as 5-6pm and woke them up as early as 5am. This was convenient for staff’s schedule but didn’t consider the preferences of the people being cared for
- Staff didn’t always accept other people’s views on how they worked. This included the views of the people using the service. This risked encouraging a closed culture
- The provider’s management team had high turnover. This led to inconsistent oversight of people’s care. Spot checks hadn’t been carried out by the provider since 2022
- Staff received appropriate training to meet people’s needs. But this wasn’t effective because they didn’t always implement it.
However:
- The provider had recently appointed a new service lead. This service lead was regularly visiting people and their relatives to ask for feedback.