At-home care agency based in Northampton placed in special measures after first CQC inspection

An at-home care agency based in Northampton has been placed in special measures after its first ever Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection.

The Partnership Healthcare Group Limited in Swan Valley was inspected by the care watchdog on three days in September when the company was caring for 20 people. The was the first inspection since the company was registered 2020.

In a report published in December, the care company was rated inadequate in the safe and well-led categories. The other three categories - effective, caring and responsive - were ranked as ‘requires improvement’.

What the report states

According to the CQC, the inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the recruitment of staff and lack of communication from the provider.

Inspectors found that the provider did not review and investigate incidents to learn from them and that people were not always supported to receive their medicines safely.

The report also says staff did not always report potential harm to people, despite having received safeguarding training.

The provider also did not obtain satisfactory evidence of staff conduct in previous employment to ensure they were suitable for the role, the report found.

Not all people were involved in the assessment of their care and support needs and not all care plans contained personalised information such as culture, religion, staff gender preference, likes and dislikes, end of life decisions and oral care support, inspectors also added.

However, people were protected from the risk of infection as staff were following safe infection prevention and control practices and people and their relatives told inspectors staff sought consent prior to providing care and support.

The report also adds that staff had received training in nutrition and fluid awareness and explained the support they provided to people and that people's privacy, dignity and independence was respected and promoted.

What the CQC has said

Craig Howarth, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said: “When we inspected The Partnership Healthcare Group Limited, it was concerning that people’s needs weren’t being met and they weren’t being supported to manage health conditions.

“Leaders must urgently address these significant issues to put people’s individual needs at the centre of people’s care plans, and to prevent them from coming to harm.

“People using this service rely on carers visiting their home to meet their basic care needs like food and drink, medications, long term health condition management and personal support like keeping clean.

“The people using this service should have been able to rely on carers to keep them well in their own homes, but this wasn’t always happening.

“We found evidence of staff not attending planned care calls which is totally unacceptable and as a result, CQC raised several safeguarding referrals with the local authority to ensure people were being supported appropriately.”

The CQC will keep the company under “close review to make sure people are safe”, while it is in special measures. If the CQC does not propose to cancel the provider's registration, there will be a re-inspection in six months to check for significant improvements.

The company has been contacted for comment, but has not responded at time of writing.

The full report will be published on the CQC website.