The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Iconia Grays in Egham, Surrey, inadequate and placed it in special measures following an inspection in June and July.
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about people's safe care, how staff were recruited and a lack of transparency from the provider.
Iconia Grays is a homecare agency providing care to people in their own homes. The service provides care to older people, people with a learning disability and/or autistic people, people living with mental health needs, dementia and physical disabilities. At the time of the inspection there were 33 people being supported by the service.
The care agency’s overall rating has dropped from good to inadequate. It has also dropped from good to inadequate for being safe, effective, responsive and well-led. Caring dropped from good to requires improvement.
CQC have taken enforcement action, which will be reported on when legally able to do so. In the meantime, the service is now in special measures which means it will be kept under review by CQC and re-inspected to check sufficient improvements have been made.
Rebecca Bauers, CQC’s director for people with a learning disability and autistic people, said:
“When we inspected Iconia Grays, we were incredibly disappointed that the standard of care had dropped significantly since our last inspection in December 2022. People were not consistently receiving person centred care which achieved good outcomes for them.
“The local authority had informed us of a number of missed care calls which had been reported to them by family members and loved ones. These missed calls could have placed people at risk of harm.
“It also meant the local authority safeguarding team couldn’t look into these concerns. However, as part of the inspection, we have made sure the local authority was made aware of any safeguarding concerns and shared other information regarding people's care.
“We also found staff were not always following up on concerns raised by their colleagues at previous calls. For example we found one person's diabetes medicines were finished or not available for a period of 6 days
“There was also very little guidance for staff regarding people who were being cared for who had health conditions including diabetes, epilepsy, depression, dementia and alcohol addiction. This presented a risk people that may not receive the care and treatment they needed.
“We will continue to monitor the service closely to ensure significant and urgent improvements are made. If we are not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action to ensure people are receiving the high standard of care they deserve.”
Inspectors found:
- Risks to people safety and well-being were not consistently identified and addressed
- When accidents and incidents were recorded, these were not consistently acted upon to ensure people's safety
- Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks on staff were not always available before staff started work
- People's needs were not always assessed prior to them receiving a service from Iconia Grays
- The provider was unable to assure themselves staff had the required skills and understanding following completion of their training.