CQC takes action at My Homecare Reading and Bracknell
- Healthwatch Reading
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
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The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated My Homecare Reading and Bracknell as inadequate and has placed it in special measures to protect people following an inspection which ended in September.
My Homecare Reading and Bracknell, run by an organisation of the same name, is a home care agency which provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection, 25 people were receiving support with personal care. This was CQC’s first inspection of the service.
Inspectors found seven breaches of regulation relating to providing people with person-centred care, safeguarding people from abuse and improper treatment, safe care and treatment, need for consent, staffing, good management and failure to submit notifications of incidents.
CQC has rated the areas of safe, effective, responsive, and well-led as inadequate. Caring was rated as requires improvement.
CQC has placed the service into special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while they make improvements. Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.
CQC has also begun the process of taking further regulatory action which My Homecare (Reading and Bracknell) Ltd has the right to appeal.
Amy Jupp, CQC’s deputy director for the South East, said:
“When we inspected My Homecare Reading and Bracknell, we found poor leadership that meant people weren’t receiving safe, person-centred care. Leaders didn't understand their responsibilities or the basic principles of providing safe support, and this had allowed unsafe care to be normalised.
“Inspectors found a closed culture where the views of people using the service, their relatives, and staff weren’t always listened to or acted upon. Although leaders claimed there were no complaints, we saw from feedback forms that several people had raised concerns that hadn’t been acknowledged.
“We found people were being supported by staff who hadn’t always been safely recruited or adequately trained, and people told us they didn’t feel safe. Our inspectors were concerned to find that leaders hadn’t properly assessed people’s needs. We also found that care plans and risk assessments contained conflicting or incomplete information about the support required.
“This meant staff didn’t always have the guidance they needed to keep people safe. In one example, staff continued to provide personal care to someone during a seizure because there was no risk assessment or any instructions on how to respond appropriately.
“While some people spoke warmly about individual staff members to us, we also heard that care could be task-focused, rushed, and inconsistent depending on which carer visited.
“People were also at risk of neglect and abuse because safeguarding concerns weren’t taken seriously. The registered manager didn’t always listen to or investigate safety concerns or report them when required. In one worrying example, there were eight documented incidents of bruising for the same person over a three-month period, yet little action had been taken to understand what was happening or keep that person safe.
“We have told leaders exactly where they must make immediate and significant improvements, and we are monitoring the service closely to keep people safe while these changes take place. We’ve also begun the process of taking further action which My Homecare has the right to appeal.”
Inspectors found:
Leaders failed to ensure staff had enough training to manage medicines. One relative told CQC that staff had logged medicine as being taken when it was still in the box.
Leaders weren’t managing staff time well, meaning they arrived late to people’s homes or rushed through tasks.
My Homecare did not involve people in their care planning. People and their families told inspectors they had never seen a care plan.
The service shared people’s personal information and documentation with staff through WhatsApp which didn’t ensure people’s privacy.
Staff sometimes copied and pasted daily notes, preventing them from accurately reflecting the care provided that day.
View the report here: My Homecare Reading and Bracknell - Care Quality Commission
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