Lifeways Paragon Limited

Date of assessment: 9 June to 3 July 2026. During the assessment, we carried out visits to the providers office address and 8 homes where people supported by the service lived.

Lifeways Paragon Limited is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our assessment 66 people, which included people with a learning disability and autistic people, received support with personal care.

We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed autistic people and people with a learning disability respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found the provider was generally meeting the principles outlined in this guidance.

The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, person centred care, need for consent, staffing and good governance. Some improvements were found at this assessment, and the provider was no longer in breach of the regulations relating to person centred care, need for consent and staffing. However, continued breaches of regulation were identified in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance.

This provider has been in Special Measures since 24 April 2026. The provider demonstrated the improvements have been made. The provider is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this provider is no longer in Special Measures.

The provider had worked hard to make improvements following our last assessment. However, we found further improvement was needed in areas such as medicines, risk management, aspects of care planning and the quality of the records. Governance systems needed to be strengthened to ensure audits were effective at identifying and addressing concerns to improve the overall quality and safety of the service.

However, we found people were supported by a consistent staff team who knew their needs well. Staff treated people with kindness and compassion, and they worked well with external professionals to support people to stay well.

We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

Date of assessment – 23 September to 29 October 2025. Site visits to the office of the provider and visits to 6 homes where people supported by the service lived. were made during the assessment. This was a responsive assessment based on intelligence CQC held about the service and potential risk. During the assessment, 5 regulatory breaches were found in respect of safe care and treatment including medicines, the need for consent, person centred care, staffing and good governance.

Lifeways Paragon Limited provides support with personal care to approximately 73 people living in their own homes. Some homes were shared accommodation. Some people lived with autism and/or a learning disability. We assessed the service against CQC’s ‘Right Culture, right care, right support’ guidance to check if the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability or autism respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found the provider did not comply in full with this guidance.

People’s needs and risks were not properly assessed, and staff did not have accurate and sufficient information on how to care for people safely, or in a person centred way. People’s care did not always adhere to best practice guidance. There were gaps in the delivery of people’s care, and some people received care and treatment which was unsafe or insufficient.

The management of medicines was not safe. People did not always receive the medicines they needed at the right time or in a safe way to prevent ill-health or the unwanted symptoms of the conditions the medicines were prescribed to treat.

The provider did not have a robust system in place to determine safe staffing levels at night. We found they has also not acted upon important information from a fire consultant who raised concerns about night time staffing levels in one home which they stated may cause a ‘substantial risk to life’ in the event of an emergency. Some staff also told us they felt staffing levels in some homes needed improvement to be able to support people appropriately.

People’s consent was not always obtained in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Records in relation to Deprivation of Liberty safeguarding legislation, designed to protect people’s human rights were poorly maintained making it difficult to tell who was subject to these safeguards at any given time.

The environment in which people lived was adequately maintained by the landlord. We saw the provider reported repairs to the landlord on behalf of people. People were supported to keep their home environment clean and tidy however some relatives raised concerns about aspects of the environment and the timeliness of repairs and maintenance by the landlord.

Infection control standards were maintained appropriately and staff used PPE as and when required.

Staff were recruited safely and had access to an induction and training. However, there were critical gaps in the training of some staff members which raised concerns about their skills, experience and understanding of the needs of the people they supported. Some staff supported people with basic nursing tasks which required delegation by a health care professional for which some staff were not properly trained or supervised. The provider was also not legally registered with CQC to provide support with basic nursing tasks. During our assessment we found professional guidance in relation to this support had not been followed to mitigate risks to people’s health and wellbeing.

Record keeping at the service was inconsistent and unreliable. Governance arrangements to monitor the quality and safety of the service were not robust. The provider and senior management team did not have effective oversight of the service to ensure risks to people’s health, safety and welfare were mitigated.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’. The service has been placed in ‘special measures’. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded.