Colchester: String of failings identified at home care agency

A string of failings were found at Independent Excel Care Consortium Ltd by the Care Quality Commision

A care agency failed to report a fight between two staff members in a person's home, an ombudsman found.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has dropped the rating for Independent Excel Care Consortium Ltd (IECC Care), in Colchester, from good to inadequate after a string of failings were found.

Issues were found in safeguarding, risk management, monitoring care visits and insufficient training.

IECC Care was contacted but declined to comment.

In one incident, police informed the CQC of a safeguarding issue in which two staff members were fighting in a person's home, which the service had not reported.

Another person told the CQC about "rough care and treatment" and asked for the carer not to visit again. But, despite being reported to the main office, the carer was sent the next day.

Hazel Roberts, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said: "When we inspected IECC Care we found that the service couldn't guarantee they keep people safe from abuse or avoidable harm."

Inspectors found risks were not well managed meaning there was a risk of choking or falling, with one person "suffering a serious fall" and no plan to prevent it happening again.

There were also concerns carers had changed times for prescribed medications without consultation.

Ms Roberts said: "The service didn't always put people's needs first. There was no robust system to monitor care visits, so they couldn't identify when care visits were late or missed, with some people telling the carer the next day that the previous appointment had been missed."

'Unacceptable'

Visits were not scheduled for a specific time, meaning some visits were grouped closely together.

In one case a person had breakfast, lunch and dinner visits in the space of five hours which the CQC called "unacceptable".

"People also told us staff were always rushing and didn't always stay for the allocated time," Ms Roberts said.

The service also found:

• People reported not always feeling like their dignity was respected

• People struggled to make contact with the service

• Procedures to ensure staff were able to give appropriate care were not always in place

• Staff were not given appropriate training support, supervision and appraisal

However, it was reported that most staff showed "warmth and respect".

At the time of the inspection in June and July, 147 people, including some with learning disabilities and autism, were using the service.

The service is in special measures and the CQC said it would "closely monitor" and reinspect it to ensure improvements have been made.