'Inadequate' care agency put in special measures

A care agency in Wolverhampton has been placed into special measures as inspectors rated it as inadequate in several areas.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said their decision over Geocare Services Limited would allow them to carry out close monitoring of the organisation, to make sure people were safe while they made improvements.

The agency offers care to people with dementia, physical disabilities and sensory impairments and cared for almost 60 people at the time of the inspection in May, the CQC said in its report.

Benjamin Yarere, the agency's director said he had challenged some of the findings and criticised the conduct of an inspector, adding he had lodged a complaint with the CQC.

The commission said its May inspection was to check on concerns found at a previous visit, during which the agency was served with three warning notices.

They were due to being in breach of four regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, the need for consent, complaints and good management.

"At this inspection, the service was still found to be in breach of three regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, the need for consent, and good management," the CQC said.

The agency was rated as inadequate for how effective it is and how safe and well-led it is - while how caring and responsive it is was rated as requiring improvement.

Some of the issues the CQC said it found included that not all staff had completed training relevant to people's assessed needs and leaders did not work effectively with people to understand and manage risks - or made sure medicines were managed safely.

Putting the agency into special measures also meant they would have a time frame in which to make improvements and know what actions the CQC would take it they did not happen, the inspectors said.

In response Yarere said he was awaiting a response from the CQC to his complaint which related to a remark he claimed an inspector made at the start of the visit and that it "raises serious concerns about fairness, impartiality, professional conduct".

After the initial concerns made by the CQC at its first inspection, he said Staffordshire County Council's quality assurance and monitoring team carried out its own checks and "did not identify evidence of neglect, abuse, safeguarding concerns, or actual harm to the service users concerned".

In the majority of the cases referred, he said, the team confirmed no further inquiries were required and concerns in other cases could be addressed through existing reviews and quality-assurance processes.

Staffordshire County Council was approached for a response.

The CQC said it had begun the process of taking regulatory action to address the concerns and added Geocare Services Limited had the right to appeal.

Yarere said, while the agency accepted that some areas "required strengthening", it "strongly disagreed" with the notice proposing to cancel registrations to provide care.

The CQC added Yarere's had missed the deadline to submit comments about its report and it was aware of his complaint, which was being investigated.

"This is with our complaints team, who have tried to contact him on several occasions," their spokesperson added.

"An investigation is under way and a response will be provided to him in due course."

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