During an assessment under our new approach
Date of assessment 9 July 2026 to 29 July 2026.
South Manchester Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency which provides care and support to people living in their own homes and in crisis accommodation. The service is registered to support adults and children with learning disabilities, dementia, eating disorders, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, substance misuse issues, and people whose rights were restricted under the Mental Health Act.
We carried out a comprehensive assessment following concerns raised by a local authority. At the time of the assessment, the service supported 65 people, the majority of whom were children with learning disabilities and/or autism.
We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’. This guidance supported judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choice, independence and access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found the provider was not always delivering care in line with these principles.
Right support
The provider did not operate safe recruitment processes. There was insufficient assurance staff possessed the skills, knowledge and experience required to support people with complex needs safely.
Medicines management systems were not effective. We found instances where prescribed medicines had not been administered because they were unavailable, and the provider had not identified, investigated or escalated these concerns.
Clinical oversight arrangements were not safe. Staff competency assessments were not always complete. Records also showed occasions where staff identified concerns about unsafe practice, but these were not escalated appropriately.
Due to the concerns raised during this assessment, we made safeguarding referrals to several local authorities.
Right Care
Care planning and risk management processes were not effective. Documents were not always clear, sufficiently detailed or reflective of people's needs to enable staff to safely support people. We received mixed feedback from staff around the support they received from managers with some staff stating they felt unable to safely raise concerns.
Right Culture
The provider did not maintain effective systems of governance and oversight. Audits failed to identify several concerns found during the assessment. The provider had not shared safeguarding incidents and had not acted on a reminder from the local authority to do so. This limited external oversight of the service.
Leadership was not consistently effective. Some leaders did not demonstrate the skills, knowledge or oversight required for their roles.
The provider always responded to our requests for information immediately and were responsive to feedback given. The provider has instigated their own full review of the service and have advised that there is a full organisational review now taking place.
We identified breaches of legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment, fit and proper persons employed, and good governance.
This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. 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 regulatory action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.