‘Inadequate’ care agency is given six months to improve
A CARE agency has been placed in special measures and given six months to improve after a damning inspection.
Options Home Care Limited, based at Accrington Market Hall, provides personal care and domestic support to adults with a variety of health and social care needs who live in their own homes.
The Care Quality Commission rated the service ‘inadequate’ in safety and leadership and ‘requires improvement’ in effectiveness, care and responsiveness. The overall rating was ‘inadequate’.
They said breaches were found at a previous inspection in April 2017 and that ‘no improvements had been made’ during the latest inspection in May this year.
Five regulation breaches included shortfalls in the effective management of risks of harm and abuse within the service, and inadequate staffing.
The CQC said: “If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. “This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.”
However, inspectors said the people they spoke to about the service ‘were complimentary about the registered manager and staff members’ and that staff were ‘reliable and in the main turned up on time. It also found the ‘privacy and dignity of service users was respected at all times’.
Coun Munsif Dad, Hyndburn council’s cabinet member for health, said: “The very vulnerable and needy are the people who need the most help, support and care. If those people cannot receive the quality of service from the providers then they are not doing justice to those people.”
Options declined to comment.