A domiciliary care agency in Battersea has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and placed in special measures, following an inspection carried out in July.
The Miracle Agency provides personal care and support to people in their own homes and the latest inspection was carried out by CQC as part of their ongoing checks to assess the levels of care being provided to people.
The service was previously rated as good overall and in all key areas. Following the latest inspection the service has been rated inadequate overall, with ratings of inadequate in safe, effective, responsive and well-led. It was rated requires improvement for being caring.
The service is in breach of regulation. CQC have placed it in special measures and will continue to monitor it closely. If significant improvements aren’t made, further enforcement action will be taken, which may include preventing it from operating if people aren’t safe in its care.
James Frewin, CQC head of adult social care inspection, said:
“We regularly review good and outstanding services to ensure they continue to provide high quality care but in this case there has been a significant drop in the standards of care being provided to people.
We found that staff didn’t always arrive on time or stay for the full duration of the visit, and they weren’t always aware of people’s specific health and medical needs.
“Care plans were incomplete, which meant that people’s specific health, social and mobility needs couldn’t be adequately met. People were at risk of receiving the wrong medication and one person’s risk of malnutrition wasn’t recorded, which meant they were at risk of not receiving appropriate care.
“We have taken action to ensure the provider is clear about what it must do to improve and we will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people are safe and well-cared for. If we aren’t satisfied that enough progress is being made we will take further action, which could include closing the service, to protect people from harm.”
The inspection found:
- Care plans didn’t record people’s medical and social needs, meaning they might not receive appropriate support and care
- People didn’t receive their medicines safely
- People were at risk of not having their nutritional needs met
- Managers failed to identify risks to people
- People weren’t always treated with kindness and respect by staff
- People weren’t always supported in a way that promoted their independence
- Staff didn’t always use people’s preferred methods of communication
- Complaints weren’t recorded, investigated or responded to, so the service failed to learn lessons when things did go wrong to improve the service
- Some staff were late to visits
- Recruitment checks hadn’t been carried out on all staff, meaning management couldn’t be assured they were suitable for their roles
- The service wasn’t well-led and managers weren’t aware of the issues identified during the inspection
- Leaders didn’t understand the gravity of CQC’s concerns
- Leaders didn’t have adequate understanding of Duty of Candour, which is their legal responsibility to be open and honest when something goes wrong.
However:
- Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible
- Staff sought people’s consent to care and treatment, in line with The Mental Capacity Act (MCA)
- Staff had received safeguarding training and understood how to identify, respond to and escalate signs of potential abuse
- People were encouraged to share their views through a questionnaire supplied by the service.