The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has dropped the rating of Aamevol Home Care Ltd from good to inadequate and placed it in special measures to protect people following an inspection in January.
Aamevol Home Care Ltd, run by a provider with the same name, provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection, four people were receiving care.
This inspection was prompted by concerns raised by whistleblowers about the management of the service.
The overall rating for the service as well as the areas of safe and well-led have dropped from good to inadequate. Being effective, caring and responsive have declined from good to requires improvement.
Following the inspection, CQC served three warning notices to Aamevol Home Care Ltd to focus their attention on making sure people using the service receive safe care and treatment that reflects their needs and preferences, improving staffing issues, and improving their management of the service.
Aamevol Home Care Ltd has been placed in special measures which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made.
Stuart Dunn, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said:
“When we inspected Aamevol Home Care Ltd, it was concerning to see such a significant deterioration in the quality of care being provided. Leaders need to prioritise making the necessary improvements, particularly regarding how people’s needs are being met appropriately and safely.
“Leaders also need to ensure they have more oversight of the service and take appropriate action when things go wrong, so they can identify areas of learning and improvement to help protect people from harm.
“Our inspection team found the service didn’t always thoroughly assess people’s care needs and potential risks to ensure they were being cared for safely. This resulted in some care plans lacking guidance for staff on how to meet people’s individual needs and support their independence.
“There weren’t always the right number of staff scheduled to care for people, and some staff hadn’t received the necessary recruitment checks or supervision to ensure they had the skills to care for people safely.
“However, we heard positive feedback from people and their relatives about the service. They found it reassuring that they were receiving care from the same staff who knew them well and took the time to listen.
“We have told Aamevol Home Care Ltd where improvements are urgently needed and will keep the service under close review to monitor their progress. We won’t hesitate to use our regulatory powers further if this doesn’t happen.”
Inspectors also found:
- Records for staff were not all up to date and accurate.
- Some people’s visits had taken place at different times to those planned. Leaders told CQC that people had requested this, but this wasn’t recorded.
- Leaders lacked oversight of the medicines people needed or whether staff had the training to administer them safely.
- It was unclear how staff worked together with other health and care professionals to promote good outcomes for people.
- People weren’t always given information in accessible formats.
- Staff didn’t have a good understanding of safeguarding to keep people safe, and leaders weren’t consistently monitoring incidents.
However:
- People and their relatives felt staff respected their homes, keeping the environment clean and reducing risks such as trip hazards.