Manchester home care service placed in special measures

Engage Care Services is in special measures

An in-home care service has been put into special measures after an inspection found care recipients were not treated with enough respect.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected Manchester-based Engage Care Services following complaints about poor personal care.

Its report rated the service as "inadequate", especially in areas such as "compassion" and "responsiveness".

Engage Care Services said it had responded promptly to the report.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service writes that the report identified breaches in relation to medicines management, managing risks people may face, maintaining people's dignity and the management of the service and staff team.

The CQC noted the service looks after 71 elderly people living with dementia or physical disabilities, but not all were treated with the sensitivity they deserve.

One care user told the inspectors: "When I am being washed, I am never covered, and left shivering sat on the toilet. It's not a good feeling."

Another person was left for two days before their continence aid was changed, with another reportedly left regularly in incontinence pads for long periods.

"Her clothing gets wet because her pads haven't been changed," a relative told the CQC. "They don't wash her properly and always put her dirty clothes back on her."

Incomplete care records were also putting elderly people at risk, with medications administered incorrectly or left to run out completely.

'No medicines'

The CQC said: "We found a person diagnosed with Parkinson's disease had no information recorded for staff about the disease or how it was critical the person received their medicines at the set time."

With 233 staff members employed in different locations around the UK, feedback about the quality of care was mixed. Some recipients told the CQC that staff were kind and caring and that they were "happy with the care".

But inspectors said some staff were not up to scratch and were not receiving enough instruction.

A representative for Engage Care Services said: "We have acted promptly and decisively. We are committed to making the necessary changes to ensure compliance with all regulatory requirements."

In the two previous CQC reports, the service was found to "require improvement".

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