Bosses promise swift action on poor care report
JON MACPHERSON
CARE service bosses have pledged to take ‘swift and effective’ action after a damning watchdog report.
Valley Supported Living, based in Waterfoot, was given an overall ‘inadequate’ rating by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors after eight regulation breaches were found.
The service provides care and support to adults with learning difficulties who live in their own homes and was found to be ‘inadequate’ in areas of safety and leadership and ‘requiring improvement’ in effectiveness, care and responsiveness.
Inspectors have now issued the care service with eight actions to take ‘where regulations were not being met’.
Their report said: “During this inspection our findings demonstrated there were breaches of eight regulations in respect of medicines management, risk management, support planning, data protection and ●● Valley Supported Living in Waterfoot received a damning watchdog report record keeping, failure to notify, managing complaints, consent to treatment, staffing, safeguarding and quality assurance systems.”
The CQC said staff ‘failed to follow safe procedures’ and that changes to the staff and management team had ‘created shortfalls and meant a high reliance on agency staff was necessary’.
However, the report also said staff were ‘caring, friendly and respectful’ and people lived in ‘comfortable, clean and well maintained environments’.
Bosses have blamed a recent ‘upheaval’ in management and staff and said they are now ‘striving to achieve a positive outcome’.
A spokesperson said: “While we have undergone recent upheaval due to moving, interim management and staffing, we welcome the CQC’s report, findings and advice for management improvements and are working closely with all agencies (especially the CQC and Lancashire county council) to ensure these are actioned swiftly, effectively and with no further disruption to the care provision. We are striving to achieve a posi- tive outcome and have at the heart of everything we do the care and safeguarding of vulnerable adults.”
Valley Supported Living, which was previously found to be ‘meeting all the standards assessed’ in October 2015, also highlighted the positive aspects of the report including service users feeling ‘safe and very happy with the way they were treated by staff’.