The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken further action to protect people at Adopt Healthcare Ltd in Harehills, Leeds, following an inspection in January where it was rated inadequate.
Adopt Healthcare Ltd is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support for people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting two people with personal care.
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action the provider was told to take at the last inspection.
Following the inspection, the service has been rated inadequate again, and for being safe, responsive, effective, and well-led. The service’s rating for how caring it is has declined from requires improvement to inadequate.
The service remains in special measures which means it will be kept under close review to make sure people are safe and, and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made. CQC is also taking further regulatory action which it will report on when legally able to do so.
Sheila Grant, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:
“When we inspected Adopt Healthcare, we found shortfalls identified at our previous inspection hadn’t been addressed. Leaders still didn’t understand how to run a safe service and we’re concerned that they are reliant on our inspections to identify areas for improvement, rather than having their own systems to monitor their effectiveness.
“Leaders didn’t ensure safeguarding processes were followed to identify when people were at risk of abuse. Staff didn’t always take the correct action following incidents or report them to the appropriate authorities.
“For example, someone raised a concern with us about how staff treated people using the service. They told us sometimes there were altercations where staff argued and raised their voice to people using the service which is unacceptable as people should feel safe in their own homes. Inspectors made a safeguarding alert to the local authority about this as staff hadn’t.
“People using the service had health conditions which could make it difficult for them to communicate. We saw care records didn’t contain the detail of this so staff didn’t have any guidance on how people needed to be communicated with. This meant there was a risk they wouldn’t have the appropriate information to meet people’s needs or wishes.
“In addition, people using the service had a reduced appetite, and it could be a challenge to encourage them to eat. There was no guidance for staff on how to assist each individual person with this which placed them at risk of not eating enough food. One person had been losing weight, but nothing had been written in their care record, and staff hadn’t referred them to other health professionals to find out why.
“We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid, widespread improvements and will continue to monitor the home closely to keep people safe during this time. We will return to check on their progress and won’t hesitate to take further action if people aren’t receiving the care they have a right to expect.”
Inspectors found:
- The ineffective monitoring of staff training meant it was difficult to confirm whether staff had received appropriate training
- Records weren’t being filled in to show that people received their prescribed medicines
- Discussions with the provider demonstrated they didn’t fully understand their role in investigating safeguarding incidents
- People didn’t always have their needs appropriately assessed
- There was no effective partnership working with other professionals. No records of discussions with medical professionals were kept and there was no information from health professionals involved with people's care included in care plans
- People didn’t always have their protected characteristics respected.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.