The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken action against a West Bromwich service for people living with a learning disability, physical disability or both conditions – following an inspection which led to it being rated inadequate.
CQC inspected Sandwell Community Caring Trust in June.
The service is run by a charity and cared for 150 people across 66 supported-living settings at the time of the inspection.
The inspection was undertaken because CQC received concerns that the service was not always obtaining people’s consent for care and treatment, which is required by law. The inspection substantiated these concerns.
Following the inspection, CQC rated the service inadequate overall and for being effective and well-led. It rated it requires improvement for being safe. It was previously rated good overall.
CQC also placed the service in special measures, meaning it will be inspected again within six months.
If fundamental improvements have not been made by the time of the next inspection, CQC will take further enforcement action to ensure people are not exposed to a service which does not meet standards they have a right to expect.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC deputy chief inspector for people with a learning disability and autistic people, said:
“Our inspection of Sandwell Community Caring Trust found the service did not always involve people in important decisions about their care. People should always be supported to have as much choice and control over their lives as possible, so this is unacceptable.
“We also had concerns about how the service managed its safeguarding responsibilities, people’s records and staff training. Behind this was a lack of oversight from its leadership to ensure best practice was followed and to support staff to provide good care.
“However, people and their relatives said they felt safe using the service. We also found it took steps to manage the risk of infection, including for COVID-19, and it sought positive outcomes for people’s overall physical health.
“We continue to monitor the service closely and will take further action if we are not assured it is making necessary improvements.”
CQC’s inspection of Sandwell Community Caring Trust found it made decisions about people’s care without involving them and where it had no legal authority to do so. This included administering their medicines covertly and using surveillance equipment, which did not follow the principles of the Mental Capacity Act.
This situation had developed because the service’s senior leaders had not ensured staff received the right training. Leaders had also not taken all reasonable steps to ensure national guidelines were followed.
Inspectors also found the service had not mitigated all restrictions affecting people that it could address. This included failing to explore all options to ensure people could move freely around their homes.
However, people did provide positive feedback about the service and they reported having good relationships with staff providing their care. The service did not use agency workers, so people benefited from consistency.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on our website.
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