Hearts of Care Agency

Updated 23 April 2025

Date of assessment: 7 – 16 May 2025.

Hearts of Care Agency is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our assessment the service supported 16 people with personal care. This included children and younger adults which the service was not registered for with CQC. In addition, the service was providing care to people with a learning disability or autism which was contrary to a condition of their registration. Following our site visit we are aware the service has applied to CQC to remove this condition.

This was the first inspection of this service since registration.

We found 5 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding, staffing, person centred care, and governance at this assessment.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Care plans did not put the person at the centre of the care planning process and did not reflect people’s needs and preferences. Risks were not always identified and mitigated.

The provider’s safeguarding processes were not effective in recognising and acting on safeguarding concerns. Risks to people were not always effectively identified and assessed by staff and the provider’s management team. The provider did not have effective systems and processes in place to ensure staff competencies were appropriately checked and monitored. The provider did not ensure people’s mental capacity was adequately assessed and that they supported people to fully engage in the assessments. People were at risk of their rights not always being upheld and their decisions not being respected. The provider’s systems and processes did not fully consider national best practice guidance on supporting people with learning disability and autistic people, for example around assessing their needs, wishes and experiences of living with a learning disability.

Governance systems were not effective in identifying failings or addressing areas for improvement. Although the computer system used by the provider could produce audits there was no evidence that these were routinely produced and analysed for themes and trends.

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. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that 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 time frame within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

Updated 23 April 2025

During the assessment, we reviewed how the model of care maximised people’s choice, control and independence; if people’s care was person-centred and promoted people’s dignity, privacy and human rights and how the service ensured ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives. Although people and people’s relatives told us they were happy with the care provided by the service, the processes and systems and staff’s understanding of how to support people with a learning disability were not always in line with regulatory requirements and current recommended best practice.

People’s relatives told us they had no concerns around how the service planned people’s care and supported them when their needs were changing, how they were involved in their care and that they felt safe with staff. However, the provider did not recognise safeguarding concerns and failed to take appropriate action to report, investigate and action feedback to protect people.

People’s relatives told us they found staff to be competent, that they visited on time, provided care as planned and followed good infection prevention and control practice. They also said they could see the care provided had a positive impact on people’s health and overall wellbeing. However, the provider failed to recognise and mitigate all risks to people and to ensure they followed the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice.