A health watchdog has rated a care provider ‘inadequate’ following an inspection triggered by concerns people were receiving unsafe care from staff who were not properly trained.
The Care Quality Commission found a raft of breaches of regulations during an inspection of Exclusive Care Limited, which has its head office in Stevenage.
The company offers supported living in Shefford and Meppershall, and residential care homes in Hatfield, for people with autism and learning disabilities.
The breaches of regulations are due to a lack of safe care and risk management, insufficient staff to support people safely and unsafe management of medicines.
They also relate to poor quality staff training and monitoring system, and poor managerial oversight.
The CQC has placed the service in special measures, which means it will be kept under review and inspected again within six months.
If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe, the CQC will take action to shut the service down.
The CQC’s inspection report said: “There were not enough staff deployed to safely meet the needs of people.
“Staff did not have sufficient skills or experience to provide care safely.
“People were not consistently protected from harm as staff were not confident in identifying, reporting or responding to the risks of abuse ocurring.
“Staff were not sufficinetly trained or supported to provide effective care.
“The service was not well led.”
The language used by staff to describe people in daily records did not always promote their dignity. For example, when one person became agitated and upset, staff recorded they “were crying like a baby”.
As the lack of staff negatively impacted on people’s care and wellbeing and placed them at risk of harm, the CQC has reported its findings to Herts County Council.
The CQC inspector did say people lived in a clean environment and staff provided care to people in a hygienic and sanitary manner.
They also said staff respected people’s privacy and supported them to maintain relationships that were important to them.
The Comet contacted Exclusive Care for a comment, but this had not been received at the time of going to press.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here