- Homecare service
Verity Healthcare - Haringey
Assessment report published 12 February 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 3 September 2025 to 15 September 2025. Verity Healthcare – Haringey is a domiciliary care service, providing the regulated activity of personal care to people who live in their own houses, flats and within specialist housing schemes. Additionally, the service also provides reablement. Reablement is a short-term intensive programme of support that helps people regain their independence and confidence after an illness, injury, or disability or hospital stay for up to 6 weeks.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care which 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 this assessment, the domiciliary care service was providing a service to 132 people, of which 53 people were receiving ‘personal care’ support. We carried out this assessment due to concerns about the quality and safety of the care being provided and an increase in safeguarding concerns.
At the last inspection in July 2022, the service was rated overall as ‘Good’.
Lessons were not always learnt to identify and embed good practice. Although people and those acting on their behalf considered themselves and family members to be safe, improvements were required to ensure staff understood people’s care needs and followed their support plan. Following our assessment the provider wrote to us and provided evidence of incident and learning reports. The actions cited will be reviewed at our next assessment to demonstrate these are effective. People did not routinely have an accurate support plan that reflected all of their needs. Improvements were required relating to the management of medicines. This placed people at risk of receiving a poor standard of care and support.
Comments from some people and their relatives did not provide assurance staff were skilled and competent to effectively apply their learning in their everyday practice to support people safely. People knew how to raise concerns. However, some people weren’t assured and confident these would be resolved by the management team. Though staff received formal supervision, where issues were raised about a member of staff’s performance, there was a lack of information as to how this was being monitored and addressed.
Suitable arrangements were in place to protect people from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff understood how to raise concerns and knew what to do to safeguard people. Risks to people were identified and managed to prevent people from receiving unsafe care and support. Staff felt valued and supported by the organisation. Minor recruitment procedures were followed to ensure the right staff were employed. People were protected by the provider's arrangements for the prevention and control of infection.
We identified 2 breaches of regulations in relation to consent and the management of medicines. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
We received variable feedback from people and their relatives about their experience of the care and support provided by the domiciliary care service, which did not meet the expected standards.
Some people were frustrated their care calls were late and were not always provided by staff who understood their needs or who could effectively converse and communicate with them. The most widespread concerns raised related to people and relatives stating they had to repeatedly tell unfamiliar and irregular staff about their care needs and how they wished to be supported. A person told us, “I get fed up with having to repeat the tasks they are supposed to be doing with every new member of staff.” A relative told us, “[Family member] gets fed up of having to talk the new staff through what needs to be done.”
People did not always feel communication with the organisation was effective. People told us they had experienced problems getting through to the domiciliary care service via the telephone and their messages were not always responded to in a timely manner. People found communication with the office to be inconsistent when they tried to contact them with feedback from concerns or complaints. A relative told us, “I have talked to the office, but they haven’t been very helpful, and it continues to happen.”
Some people found staff to be kind and caring, particularly when they received support from a consistent core team of experienced staff, and with whom they had had the opportunity to build a good relationship with and rapport. Most people and relatives stated they felt safe when staff visited theirs or their family member’s home environment.