Domiciliary Care Experts

Date of assessment: This assessment took place between 13 January 2026 and 29 January 2026. We visited the office location on 13 and 14 January 2026. The assessment was carried out to follow up on enforcement action we had taken at the last assessment.

The service provided domiciliary care and support to people and supported some people with complex care needs. The service was registered to provide nursing support to people. However, at the time of the inspection there were no nurses working at the service and staff were not providing nursing support. At the time of this assessment there were 63 people (a mixture of adults and children) receiving support with ‘personal care’: help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Not everyone using the service receives the regulated activity of personal care. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. We did not review people’s care and support who did not receive personal care.

This service is registered to support people with physical disabilities, autistic people and people with a learning disability. ‘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. We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture (RSRCRC)’ 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.

During the assessment we found 7 breaches of the regulations in relation to person centred care, consent to care and treatment, safe care and treatment, complaints management, staffing, fit and proper persons employed and good governance. The breaches of safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance were continued breaches from the previous assessment. People continued to be placed at risk of harm. The oversight and management of the service had not improved.

People were not always protected from avoidable harm because risk assessments were not always in place, and not always clear, comprehensive and up to date. Care plans were inconsistent. Some were very detailed to give staff clear information on how to meet people’s needs and some were sparse. Some people were not always treated with dignity and respect. Medicines were not always well managed. Systems and processes to audit and check the service were not in place. Staff felt communication was not always effective. Staff were supported through training; however, staff had not all completed training relevant to people’s assessed needs. Staff had not always been adequately deployed at times that met people’s needs, they did not always have sufficient travel time between people they supported. Staff had not always been recruited safely. However, the provider had carried out relevant checks such as criminal record checks before staff started as well as carrying out home office right to work in the UK checks.

This service remains 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 user our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

In instances where CQC have 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 registered to support people with physical disabilities, autistic people and people with a learning disability. ‘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. We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture (RSRCRC)’ 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 service provided domiciliary care and support to people and supported some people with complex care needs. The service was registered to provide nursing support to people. However, at the time of the inspection there were no nurses working at the service and staff were not providing nursing support.

Date of assessment: This assessment took place between 23 June and 09 July 2025. We visited the office location on 23 June 2025 and 30 June 2025. The assessment was carried out due to concerns we received about staff training, staff practice and management oversight of the service. During the assessment we found 3 breaches of the regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance.

The safety of the service needed to be improved. People’s medicines were not well managed. Medicine administration records were poor, and staff were not following good practice guidelines. Where concerns with staff practice had been identified staff had not always undergone re-training and checks on their competency to ensure they were practicing safely. The provider had not ensured the equipment staff used to support people such as hoists had been safety checked. There was also a lack of evidence staff competency for manual handling had been completed.

Care plans did not always include the guidance staff needed to support people. Some people had health conditions which were not included in their care plans and risk assessments.

When incidents and accidents had occurred, sufficient action had not always been taken to reduce the risk of concerns re-occurring. People had not always been protected from the risk of abuse.

Staff had not always completed the training they needed to support people safely. The new manager was working to improve staff training. However, they told us some staff still needed to complete mandatory training and had identified staff were completing complex tasks they were not appropriately trained to complete.

The service was not well managed. There was a lack of oversight of staff practice and concerns. Quality assurance systems needed to be improved and had not been effective at reducing risks to people and improving service provision. People’s records were not always an accurate reflection of their care needs.

There had been a poor culture at the service although most staff told the inspector this was improving under the new manager. Feedback from partners was not always positive as partners had also identified concerns about the service. Whilst there had been some improvements made under the new manager there was still a considerable number of improvements to make. The provider had not evidenced they had considered the resources needed to drive forward some of the improvements they told us they were planning, such as introducing a new IT system.

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 user our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

In instances where CQC have 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.