Care service in Northampton rated 'inadequate' and placed in special measures after care 'deteriorated

The company, which provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats, was rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between July and September this year. The watchdog downgraded the service from a ‘good’ rating to ‘inadequate’, placed it in special measures and has begun the process of taking regulatory action, which the service is able to appeal.

CQC carried out the inspection in line with its ‘right care, right culture, right support’ guidance, which assesses whether a service guarantees autistic people and people with a learning disability the respect, equality, dignity, choice, independence and access to local communities that most people take for granted. The inspection was prompted by concerns received about the service.

Inspectors found that care had “deteriorated” and the service was now in breach of five regulations in relation to consent, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, management and fit and proper persons. They did find that managers were quick to take action, but inspectors were not “confident that the actions taken were done with full understanding” of individual situations.

The service has said since the inspection they have appointed a new registered manger and they remain “confident in the quality of support they provide”.

Inspectors found that staff did not always involve people in their own care planning, leaders did not foster a culture of person-centered care and some staff did not support people in a way that promoted their independence.

Staff also supported people with health care tasks without having received the proper training or assessment of competency, such as catheter care, putting people at risk of harm.

Inspectors added that leaders didn’t listen to concerns about safety and did not investigate or report incidents and some staff said they were treated unfairly by managers and that staff morale was the lowest they had ever experienced.

However, they did also find that people were happy with their homes, which were personalised with pictures of their friends and families, souvenirs from holidays, posters and memorabilia of their likes and interests.

Greg Rielly, CQC’s deputy director of operations in the midlands, said: “It was disappointing to see leaders hadn’t made sure staff received the appropriate training to support people with specific needs, such as epilepsy, or information and guidance on how to manage risks. For example, two people were at increased risk of falls due to their reduced mobility, but this hadn’t been identified by leaders and so staff didn’t know how to appropriately support them.

“We found that people often had to wait to receive the support they required. One person needed a specific gender to support them with certain aspects of their care, but there wasn't always a suitable staff member available to help. They were sometimes left waiting for a staff member from another service instead.

“Leaders didn’t work well with people or external partners to maintain safe systems of care and referrals weren’t always made for people who needed support from external professionals. For example, one person had difficulty swallowing, but this hadn’t been referred to speech and language therapy to provide guidance and advice to staff on how to support the person with this need, putting them at risk.

“We provided feedback to leaders and managers throughout the assessment and managers were quick to take action to rectify individual issues. However, we weren’t confident that the actions taken were done with full understanding and consideration of the situation, and sometimes led to other concerns, such as people being left at higher risk.

“Overall, we have told Vogue Future Living where urgent improvements are needed and will continue to monitor the service to ensure people remain safe while this happens.”

In response, Vogue Future Living said it acknowledges the findings and that it is “actively working” with the CQC and local authority.

A spokesperson for the supported living service said: “Vogue Future Living acknowledges the findings from the recent CQC inspection.

"Since the report, we have taken immediate action, including appointing a new registered manager, and we are actively working with the CQC and the local authority to ensure full compliance and continued improvement.

"We remain confident in the quality of support we provide, and recent feedback from the people who use our services and their families has been positive.

"Our priority is to ensure safe, person-centred care, and we are committed to making the necessary improvements to demonstrate this.”

Special measures means the service will be closely monitored by the CQC to ensure people are safe while the service makes improvements. Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this does not happen.

The full report will be published on the CQC website in the coming days.