The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Daryel Care Greenwich inadequate following inspections in June and July.
This service provides personal care to people living in their own homes and 145 people were using the service at the time of inspection.
This is the first time CQC has inspected Daryel Care Greenwich since it was registered in December 2022. This inspection was also carried out in part to follow up concerns CQC received about poor risk management and governance at the service.
As well as being rated inadequate overall, Daryel Care Greenwich has also been rated inadequate for being safe and well-led. It has been rated requires improvement for being effective, caring, and responsive.
Following this inspection, CQC has issued Daryel Care Greenwich a warning notice related to the governance of the service, to focus their attention on making immediate changes to improve people’s safety.
CQC has also placed the service in special measures, which means it will be kept under review and re-inspected to check on the progress of improvements.
Antoinette Smith, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said:
“When we inspected Daryel Care Greenwich we were disappointed to find that despite the best efforts of staff who were caring and competent, both they and people using the service were being let down by poor leadership.
“Although many people said they felt safe with their regular carers, who understood their needs and preferences, we found these weren’t always recorded in people’s care plans. Additionally, we saw risks to people’s safety weren’t always assessed and recorded, and risk assessments often contained contradictory information and unclear guidance for staff.
“This risks staff being unaware of or not knowing how to respond to someone’s individual needs, particularly as many people told us they didn’t always receive care from the same carers who knew them well.
“Many people also told us their care visits were often late or missed, but complaints about this hadn’t been addressed by leaders. While people praised their individual carers, many said they felt unhappy with management.
“Leaders didn’t have enough oversight of this service, which meant they failed to identify and respond to these issues.
“We’ve told leaders areas they must improve to support their staff in providing safe and good quality care and will continue to monitor the service closely, including through future inspections, to ensure these improvements have been made.”
Inspectors also found:
- Records showed leaders hadn’t scheduled any travel time between care visits at different locations, and many staff had been recorded as being in two places at once
- People’s medicines weren’t always managed safely, and medicines records weren’t always accurate
- Many people said they were unhappy with how staff supported them with meals, and some people said staff didn’t always understand their individual dietary needs
- Leaders didn’t always ensure staff had the training needed to support people’s individual needs, including training on the mental capacity act and training on caring for autistic people or people with a learning disability
- Personal information for both staff and people using the service wasn’t always stored securely.
However:
- Staff supported people to make choices and promoted the independence. However, care plans didn’t always include what people could do independently
- Staff told inspectors how they adapted care to meet people’s cultural and religious needs.