Social Care Solutions Ltd (Herts & Bucks)

Date of assessment 26 January to 18 February 2026. This assessment was carried out to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Warning Notices in relation to Regulation 11 Need for Consent, Regulation 12 Safe Care and Treatment and Regulation 17 Good Governance.

Social Care Solutions Herts and Bucks is a supported living service providing support to older people, and younger adults with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder who live within the supported living settings. At the time of the assessment the service was supporting 11 people, 7 people at one supported living setting and 4 people at another. This service provides care and support to people living in a 'supported living' setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this assessment looked at people's personal care and support.

At the time of this assessment, there was no registered manager in post. The area manager had recently submitted an application to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which remained under review. During our previous visit, one supported living service was led by an interim manager, while another had no active service manager due to absence. At this assessment, both service manager positions had been successfully appointed, providing greater stability in leadership to embed and sustain improvements with the support of the senior leadership team.

We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

The provider had begun to make early, positive progress in stabilising leadership, improving communication, and strengthening daily oversight. Relatives told us people are now more consistently supported, with current staffing levels not impacting essential care such as medicines or health appointments. Leaders had reduced reliance on agency staff and recruited additional permanent workers, including drivers, to improve continuity and ensure people’s commissioned hours are met more reliably. Safe recruitment practices had also been followed.

Training completion, induction quality and access to specialist learning had improved, and staff confirmed they now received more consistent supervision, knowledge sharing sessions and competency-based discussions that enhanced their confidence and capability.

Although the safe management of medicines showed improvement, we continued to find gaps in PRN protocols, inconsistencies between MARs and pharmacy labels, and 1 instance of expired topical medication, indicating that oversight and stock rotation processes were not yet fully reliable. Recent increases in audit frequency, enhanced training, and better organised medicines files, supported by positive feedback from relatives demonstrated that the service was progressing towards a safer and more consistent medicines management.

The provider had strengthened its approach to consent and best interest decision‑making, with relatives being routinely involved where people lacked capacity. However, further work was required to ensure all MCA/BI decisions are decision specific, clearly documented, and that any restrictive practices, have the appropriate MCA and best interest decision processes in place. Evidence showed MCA forms were sometimes combined across multiple decisions or required further detail, and not all restrictions were fully supported by completed best‑interest assessments.

Although progress was clear, governance improvements were not yet fully embedded. Gaps remained in the reliability of audits, record ‑keeping, induction compliance for agency staff, and the consistency with which staff follow risk management and care planning processes. The service remained in a period of transition; continued attention was needed to sustain improvements and ensure consistent, high-quality ‑quality care.

This service has been in Special Measures since 24 June 2025. The provider demonstrated improvements that have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Date of assessment 20 May to 17 June 2025.

Social Care Solutions Herts and Bucks is a supported living service providing support to older people, and younger adults with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder who live within the supported living settings. At the time of the assessment the service was supporting 11 people, 7 people at one supported living setting and 4 people at another.

This service provides care and support to people living in a 'supported living' setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this assessment looked at people's personal care and support.

This assessment was prompted by a review of information we held about this service.

At the time of our assessment there was no registered manager in post. One supported living setting had recently appointed an interim service manager until September 2025 and the service manager was currently absent from the other supported living setting with a team leader managing the day-to-day oversight of people’s care and support. Both shall be referred to as the manager for the purpose of this report. The regional director was providing support to both; however, they left their post during our assessment process. The managing director advised a new area manager would commence in post on 23 June 2025 and would be providing support to both supported living settings.

The assessment included 3 days where we visited both supported living settings. We found 3 breaches of regulation in relation to the safe management of medicines, consent, and governance.   

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’ (RSRCRC) 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. This guidance was reviewed as part of this assessment, and we found the provider had failed to fully meet the principles of it.

Risks to people’s safety and welfare were not always assessed to mitigate the risk of harm. Medicines were not managed safely. Staff were not sufficiently trained to meet the needs of people. The provider and staff did not always recognise how to promote people’s rights, choices to ensure their independence. Governance systems and management and provider oversight had not been effective in identifying the shortfalls we found at this assessment to make the required improvements.

In instances where CQC has 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 timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.