Safety fears put care service in special measures

An at-home care provider has been placed in special measures after concerns were raised by a council into its quality of care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating for Hertford-based Eureka Care Services has been downgraded from "good to inadequate", and it has also given it three warning notices.

The CQC said the Hertfordshire company had "significant concerns for the safety, staffing, and management of the service".

Eureka Care Services said it took the "findings extremely seriously" and it had already begun implementing a "comprehensive action plan".

The CQC said inspections took place from January to March at Eureka Care Services, which supports adults living with dementia, physical disabilities, or sensory impairments, as well as people with autism and learning disabilities.

It will now closely monitor the business to ensure "people are safe while its leaders make improvements".

Hazel Roberts, the CQC's deputy director of adult social care in the East of England, said: "We were deeply concerned to find many staff lacked the training and knowledge needed to meet people's needs safely."

She said it was not down to staff but "an unsupportive management team that didn't always know what was happening in their service".

"We found leaders were expecting staff to provide specialist support without specialist training, such as for people living with dementia or a learning or physical disability.

"Staff also lacked guidance from people's care plans."

She said in one case a note of someone's risk of choking had not been recorded on their care plan and "staff hadn't changed their diet to reduce this risk".

This also went unreported.

Inspectors found leaders did "little" when concerns were raised and the company did not always respect people's consent or understand the rights of people with limited mental capacity.

Visits were not always planned properly, meaning some were up to 45 minutes late, but this did improve during the inspection, it added.

Not all staff were trained in infection prevention.

The report did state that strong bonds had been made between some staff and they were "trying to provide the best care in difficult circumstances".

They also "worked well with people to understand and manage risks".

The report stated that preferences were not always clearly noted, and if someone had requested female-only staff, sometimes male care staff were sent.

The company said it was due to not having enough female staff.

Systems were not always in place to promote staff wellbeing and when staff left the provider it had not thought "to review their workforce culture and how to review their approach to equality and diversity".

Eureka Care Services Ltd said: "We deeply regret that we fell short of the high standards of care and safety that the people we support and their families rightly expect."

It said it would now review and update all care plans.

Urgent specialist training would also be provided for all staff, strengthening its incident reporting and it said it would work closely with the CQC to "drive rapid improvement and rebuild trust".

"The safety and wellbeing of the people in our care remain our absolute priority," it added.

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