- Homecare service
Ivy Care (Reading & Newbury)
Assessment report published 22 October 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 31 March to 16 July 2025. The assessment was triggered by intelligence we received regarding concerns around staff ability, medicines, and visiting times. The service is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes.
An assessment has been undertaken of a specialist service that is registered for use by autistic people or people with a learning disability. We assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.
The provider was in breach of the legal regulation relating to regulation 12 safe care and treatment, and regulation 17 good governance.
Staff felt supported by leaders. The provider assured us that staff had training to carry out their role, however, there was limited oversight of training in place.
People’s care planning and risk assessment contained conflicting information and did not always document support required to keep people safe as assessments were not always in place, or did not contain enough guidance.
Medicines were ordered when running low, however medicines were signed as given when they were not available. Medicines were given without documentation in place.
There was a lack of consistent oversight of the service. Auditing processes were not always effective in identifying shortfalls such as, limited documented actions around incident and accidents, missing documentation, and limited information on people’s capacity.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
People and relatives were overall happy with the service. Although some people did raise concerns about the timings of their visits and staff not staying for the full time of the care call, the provider had taken steps to improve on this.
Relatives felt their staff respected their loved one’s needs, involving people in their care to maintain independence where possible. People knew who to contact if there were any concerns, and felt the service was reactive to people’s needs.
People told us they received regular staff that knew them well, staff were kind and caring. People felt their dignity was always maintained.