Light Care Services Limited Hampshire

Updated 30 May 2024

We completed the assessment between 12 June 2024 to 12 July 2024.

We found seven breaches of the legal regulations in the areas of Safe Care and Treatment, Safeguarding, Good Governance, Staffing, Fit and proper persons employed, Notice of change and Notification of Incidents.

The provider did not have a proactive and positive culture of safety based on openness and honesty. They did not listen to concerns about safety and did not investigate or report safety events. Lessons were not learnt to continually identify and embed good practice.

The provider did not work well with people to understand and manage risks. Staff did not provide care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them. Information regarding people’s support needs and health conditions was not always used to produce complete and thorough care planning, and to provide appropriate guidance to staff. The provider did not ensure that people were protected from abuse. Staff training and recruitment processes were inadequate. This put people at risk.

We found serious concerns regarding the leadership of the service. The was a failure to adequately assess the needs of the people they supported, and governance systems and audits were not effective in identifying or addressing areas for improvement. The leadership team were unaware of some of their regulatory responsibilities.

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.

Updated 30 May 2024

We spoke to 4 people and 6 relatives of people who were receiving care and support from the service.

Some of the people we spoke to expressed that they were generally happy with their care, however our assessment found care did not meet the expected standards.

While some people told us they felt safe in their homes when staff were providing care, we found this was not the case for all. A relative told us about a safety incident that had occurred due to poor care from untrained staff and another relative told us about how their relative received unsafe care from staff who did not understand the person’s needs.

The provider and leadership team did not understand their regulatory responsibilities and people and relatives’ raised concerns in relation to the overall management of the service. Comments included, “The company is not fit for purpose”, “Complaints and serious incidents are not investigated”, “Staff are untrained and overworked” and “The management of the company needs to be improved.”

We found when concerns were raised by people using the service or their relatives, records did not consistently show that these were investigated thoroughly. People and relatives were not supported to raise concerns or complaints or encouraged to feedback any areas for improvements.