CQC says home care service Caring Connections is ‘not always safe’

The report by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission, or CQC, has now been published following a visit to Caring Connections six months ago.

The new owners say they have worked 'tirelessly' since the inspection to address the areas highlighted.

Based on Dallam Lane, the service was supporting 86 people at the time of the inspection at the start of the year.

The visit was an announced, responsive assessment, prompted by emerging risk.

During the assessment, the CQC assessed 12 quality statements and identified three breaches of regulation including person centred care, safe care and treatment and good governance.

The report states: “Staff were not always recruited safely, and safeguarding referrals were not always recorded.

“People's needs were not always assessed and reviewed when things had changed. People spoke positively of the staff approach, however others raised concerns in this area.”

People gave mixed feedback on the services they received, as while some received safe support with their medicines, others said they did not always receive their medicines as prescribed.

Another key issue people mentioned was the lack of staff, and how the staff approach to care ‘was not always person centred’.

One staff member said: "There is not enough staff at the minute. We are picking up extra clients and shifts. It is a bit stressful.”

Safe recruitment checks failed to be carried out for new staff joining the service, and medicines were not always managed safely.

There were also a series of gaps in staff members employment history which failed to be accounted for, and while references were in place, these were not always obtained from the most recent employer.

Some people at the service said that they felt safe, yet they were not always treated in a dignified and compassionate manner.

However, many individuals spoke highly of the homecare service, with one individual saying: “I think they are great. I have no complaints. Staff are lovely and very polite.”

Paul Growney, chief executive of Caring Connections, said: "In February 2024 we received a very disappointing CQC review. This followed our takeover of a key homecare contract in Warrington in which we took over a local Warrington provider. At the time of award, we were unaware of significant competency issues in the management of this provider, and in the time since we have invested substantial resource to address this.

"Over the past six months we’ve performance managed those who were not supporting our mission to provide high quality care, with a number of individuals moving on. In addition, we’ve invested heavily in resources, worked on safe recruitment, revised our approach to safeguarding and completed reviews of needs assessments. Of course, the need for this work highlighted gaps in our internal governance processes – approaches to ensure that cross-checks around quality assessment go beyond individual staff members and/or sub-contracted organisations.

"This is something for which we take full responsibility, and we can confirm process around this has now been addressed.

"Nearly six months on we have worked tirelessly to address the issues raised. We want to reassure the people we support that we are highly confident the risks listed are dealt with and that the service is safe. We would also like to highlight the positive aspects of this service that are reported by the Warrington Guardian and the positive experiences of the vast majority of our staff team and supported people.

"It is vital that we reassure families, officials and most importantly those we support in the local community of our remedial action, and as always make it clear that any concerns, or requests for further reassurance can be sent directly to myself as CEO or by emailing our formal feedback channels on grouphr@caringconnections.org.uk."