Archived: My Homecare Reading and Bracknell

Updated 6 August 2025

Date of Assessment: 13 August 2025 to 9 September 2025. My Homecare Reading and Bracknell is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people in their own Homes. At the time of our inspection, 25 people were receiving support with personal care.

The provider failed to ensure people were supported by suitably qualified and competent staff. Staff did not always feel supported. Staff had not completed necessary training to safely support people with their specific needs, and lacked support from the management who, in addition lacked understanding of their role and the principles of providing high-quality care.

Records regarding people’s health needs were not kept up to date and contained limited information. People’s risks and needs had not been identified and were not well managed. Risks in relation to specific health needs such as skin integrity, seizures, diabetes and, for people living with dementia, were not assessed to guide staff how to safely support people.

Medicines were not managed safely. Audits and checks in place did not identify the concerns we found during the inspection.

The provider failed to identify shortfalls in people’s care and experiences, as there was inadequate oversight of the service to identify and make improvements.

We found significant shortfalls across the service and identified breaches of 7 regulations in relation to providing people with person centred care, safeguarding, safe care and treatment, need for consent, staffing, notifications and good governance.

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 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.

Updated 6 August 2025

People did not always receive a service which provided safe, effective, person centred care. People were not involved in their care planning. Where people were asked for feedback, the registered manager did not act on views gathered from people.

People and their relatives expressed concerns about safety in relation to medicines, timings of care calls, and communication. People felt their personal care was rushed or not completed properly and felt there were concerns with the consistency and level of care provided by staff.

Some people spoke warmly about individual staff who made them feel comfortable and supported. However, we also heard staff could be task-focused, with limited time or warmth and said the quality of care depended on which carer visited.

We received consistent feedback about poor communication and reports of feeling dismissed when calling the office. Families felt their concerns were not listened to, messages were not answered, and concerns were not addressed.