Redcar council ends Allied care role over 'significant failings'
- Published
A Redcar and Cleveland Council committee has voted to end its use of Allied Healthcare
A council has dropped a care provider after a whistleblower revealed the firm had failed to visit 190 homes over one weekend.
Redcar and Cleveland Council had to send staff in over the August Bank Holiday due to Allied Healthcare's "significant failings".
Allied was taken over by CRG in November, but councillors said the local CRG was rated "inadequate".
CRG said it does not have contracts with the council.
CRG's Stockton branch, which covers the Redcar area, was rated "inadequate", external by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after a visit in September.
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Ian Munro, group CEO from CRG, said it was "difficult to comment on a historical issue" before CRG took over but it is working to improve its CQC rating.
But he said the company "has no contracts with Redcar and Cleveland Council" and CRG Homecare "is a separate operating business".
The council's Adult and Communities Scrutiny and Improvement Committee voted to "end our relationship with Allied", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The whistleblower, a manager at Allied Healthcare, spoke to the council "against the instruction of the Allied executive team" according to a report to the committee.
'Clean break'
The manager said their request to bring in agency staff to cover the visits was "declined" by bosses.
Councillors said they no longer wanted to work with either Allied or CRG.
Neil O'Brien, Labour councillor for Zetland, said: "Having had discussions with Allied and the track record we have had with them recently, I think, as a local authority doing the best for vulnerable adults in our community, we should be drawing a line under this."
Ian Jeffrey, Labour councillor for South Bank, said there should be a "clean break" from Allied and CRG.
A council spokesman said the authority is "transferring care the packages of care including staff" to another firm already working in the borough.