Updated 18 November 2025
Date of assessment: 10 December to 23 December 2025. A comprehensive inspection was commenced due to stakeholders sharing concerns of a safeguarding nature. Option Care Ltd is a care at home service registered to provide support to older people, younger adults, children, people living with dementia, a mental health need, a sensory impairment, a physical disability and/or people with a learning disability or an autistic person. There were 61 people receiving the regulated activity of personal care at the start of the inspection.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.
Due to the service supporting people with a learning disability and/or autistic people, the CQC’s guidance ‘Right Care, Right Culture, Right Support’ was considered as part of this inspection.
Staff provided consistently positive feedback about the provider and the quality of care provided by Option Care Ltd. One staff member said, “Option Care prioritises compassion, dignity, respect, person-centred care, safety and empowering independence. The mission is to provide high-quality personalised care that improves lives.”
The provider did not always make sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. There were systems and processes in place to administer medicines safely however, staff were not always following them and therefore they were not always effective in ensuring safe management of medicines.
We received mixed feedback from people and their relatives about their care calls. We reviewed the providers call time data which corroborated these concerns. We found a number of occasions where staff had arrived late or not stayed for the full duration of people’s care visits.
We received mixed feedback from professionals about their experience of working with Option Care Ltd. The provider was currently working with one local authority to address and respond to concerns across multiple areas of the service. We had received positive feedback from some professionals who told us they had now seen improvements in the service in response to the concerns.
Whilst leaders had some knowledge and understanding of the issues and priorities within the service, oversight and governance of the service was not always effective. Governance systems were not always effective in identifying and addressing risks, and the systems had failed to identify the concerns we found during this inspection.
This inspection found the provider to be in breach of the legal regulation relating to good governance.
The provider was responsive to all issues raised during this assessment, and the leadership team put immediate measures in place to make improvements where they agreed there were shortfalls.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.