Hazelcare Head Office

Ratings

• Overall

  Requires improvement

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Requires improvement

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Requires improvement

Our view of the service

Date of assessment: 30 June 2026 to 17 July 2026. Hazelcare Head Office provides personal care to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting so they can live as independently as possible. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. Personal care is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where personal care is provided, we also consider any wider social care provided.
The service supports people with a learning disability and autistic people, as well as people with mental health needs and associated physical health conditions. People lived in shared houses or individual flats and received care tailored to their needs from staff deployed within each service.
Hazelcare Head Office is also registered as a domiciliary care service providing personal care to individuals living in their own homes. However, at the time of our assessment they were not providing care or support to people from their domiciliary care service. This was a responsive assessment prompted by concerns received about the safe care and treatment of people using the service.

We have 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.
Staff were not always managing people’s medicines safely. People were at increased risk as the provider had not assessed or effectively managed all risks to people.
People were supported by staff who knew them well. Staff communicated to people in ways that met their needs. Staff were kind and caring and promoted people’s independence. We observed staff treating people with compassion and respect.
The provider’s governance arrangements were not effective, as existing audits failed to identify the concerns found during this assessment.
We found 3 breaches of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding and good governance. We asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
 

People's experience of this service

While people and their relatives expressed overall satisfaction with the care and treatment, our assessment found elements of care did not meet the expected standards.
People felt safe and supported by staff who were kind and caring, respected them and provided them with good care.
People said staff listened to them and responded when they needed help. Observations showed staff responded promptly to requests and supported people in a calm and respectful way.
Relatives expressed general satisfaction with the care people received and told us they felt people were happy and safe. Their comments included, “It is a massive step up from where they were before, and they and we are so happy” and “It is not perfect, but I feel they are safe there and happy as well, they [staff] are good and they do look after them.”