The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated ILS24 Health Care Limited in Mabgate, Leeds, as inadequate and placed it in special measures to protect people, following an inspection between 29 October and 16 December last year.
ILS24 Health Care Limited, run by an organisation of the same name, provides personal care to adults in their own homes. At the time of this inspection, 11 people were receiving support from the service.
CQC carried out this inspection as part of its routine monitoring of health and social care services.
Following this inspection, ILS24 Health Care Limited’s overall rating has dropped from requires improvement to inadequate, as have the ratings for being safe and well-led. The ratings for effective and caring have declined from good to requires improvement. Responsive has been re-rated as good.
During the inspection, CQC found five breaches of regulation in relation to providing safe care and treatment. This included medicines management, the need for consent, staffing levels and whether the appropriate people were employed, as well as governance.
The service has been placed in special measures, which means CQC will monitor it closely to keep people using the service safe whilst improvements are made. CQC has also begun the process of taking regulatory action to address the concerns which ILS24 Health Care Limited has the right to appeal.
Linda Hirst, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:
“When we inspected ILS24 Health Care Limited, we found leaders didn’t have a good enough understanding of the service to ensure people were receiving safe care. It was also concerning that staff were providing people with some basic nursing support which the service isn’t registered to do, and the registered manager didn’t know they had to register with us to legally be able to provide this.
"In addition, staff hadn’t received adequate training to be able to carry out this nursing support safely. This could place people at significant risk of harm as staff didn’t have the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to provide this type of care.
“We found leaders didn’t support staff with a good process around care records. We were particularly concerned about care for people with complex medical needs as they weren’t properly assessed, which meant staff didn’t have the most up to date information to keep them safe.
“Leaders also didn’t ensure medicines were managed safely. People were given medicines by staff, even though there was no record of them being prescribed for them, and these weren’t being recorded after they had been given. This meant that it was unclear what medicines people had received, which could put them at risk.
“However, it was positive to hear that relatives felt staff treated their loved ones well, they turned up on time and didn’t rush their care.
“We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid improvements and we’ll continue to monitor the service closely to keep people safe during this time. We have also begun the process of taking regulatory action to address the concerns which ILS24 Health Care Limited has the right to appeal.”
CQC found:
- There were no appropriate systems and processes in place to monitor people’s daily care.
- The service didn’t always work well with partner organisations to ensure people received good care.
- Staff didn’t always record people’s consent in the correct way, as stated in the Mental Capacity Act.
- Leaders didn’t encourage staff to share information when things went wrong so everyone could learn and avoid it from happening again.
However:
- Staff were aware what action to take if they suspected any abuse.
- Effective policies and procedures were in place to maintain good standards of infection, prevention and control.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.