- Homecare service
Age UK Northamptonshire Also known as Age Concern Northamptonshire
Assessment report published 4 November 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
The assessment was undertaken between 18 August and 8 September 2025. The assessment was carried out due to emerging risk at the service identified during regular monitoring. A site visit was carried out on 18 August 2025. We assessed a total of 33 quality statements.
Age UK Northamptonshire is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our assessment there was one person receiving personal care. The service had recently stopped supporting two other people.
At the last assessment this service was rated Good. During this assessment we found the provider was in breach of the legal regulations relating to need for consent and good governance.
Care plans lacked information to ensure staff knew how to support people. However, as the staff team was stable, they knew people’s needs well as they had been supporting them for a while. The provider did not always respect people’s rights around consent when delivering care and treatment. There was no evidence that people had been involved in devising their care plans or consenting to them. People’s relatives said that staff were kind and treated their loved ones with respect. There was no effective system of governance in place to identify where improvements were required. The Registered Manager had not been involved in managing the service for the months preceding the assessment and had just resumed the role.
The overall rating of this service has changed to requires improvement. The service has been asked to submit an action plan to address the breaches of legal regulations.
People's experience of this service
People were generally happy with the care they received, and they felt that staff were kind. However, our assessment found elements of care did not meet the expected standards. Care plans were task focused and didn’t detail what people could do for themselves to remain independent. Feedback hadn't been sought from people until just before the assessment. Limited opening hours for the service meant that people could not always get support at a time that suited them. Staff and leaders understood potential discrimination and inequality people who use the services might face. They understood people's rights under the Equality act and The Human Rights act.