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Revealed: How a Black Country care agency put elderly people at risk

People cared for by a Black Country agency were put at risk and not treated with dignity and respect, inspectors have found.

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Civicare Midlands Ltd, which has its offices based on High Road in Willenhall, was found by the Care Quality Commission to be badly led and unresponsive to people's needs'.

A CQC inspectors' report said the service provided was not safe, it was not consistently effective, not consistently caring and not responsive or well led.

The service, which predominantly covers Walsall and Wolverhampton, has now been placed in 'special measures' and must undergo another inspection within six months. If insufficient progress has been made, it could have its registration removed.

  • Click here to see the full CQC report

In one case a person in Civicare's care had epilepsy – but staff were unaware they had the condition. The risks of them having the condition were not assessed and staff were unaware whether the person had experienced any recent seizures, the inspectors revealed.

Despite the damning report, the agency's boss has described the problems as only 'minor' and vowed everything was being addressed.

The CQC visited the service on May 19. At the time the provider supported 53 older people living in their own homes.

Inspectors said they assessed the safety, responsiveness and leadership of the agency as 'inadequate' and said that the effectiveness and the level of care 'required improvement'. The CQC had made another visit last September and found insufficient progress had been made since then.

A screengrab from the 'About Us' section of the Civicare Midlands website

Their report highlighted the fact that agency staff were not properly checked before they were employed.

Civicare staff were sometimes unable to outline risks of how people with diabetes needed help with food and drink and how they should be treated to keep them safe.

Others were unclear how to monitor potential pressure areas and report concerns. One said they had received training – but did not know what a developing pressure area would look like.

The CQC inspectors' report stated: "People were not consistently supported in a caring, dignified and respectful way. While most care staff were kind and caring in their approach, people felt there were several staff members who lacked the same approach." The report said people described some staff as polite, friendly and supportive but added: "But we did receive comments from people and their relatives about staff who were not caring in their approach."

Some said office staff and management's communication needed to be improved. They did not call back if staff were late, one said, and were late nearly every day.

Referring to respecting for a person's dignity, one told how if the bed was wet, care staff 'would simply put a towel over the wet patch and would not change the bed.'

Civicare Midlands Limited was established in 1998.

Inspectors, who spoke to staff, people using the service and relatives, said they were told that there were not always enough staff which led to care visits being missed. One person said their relative's diabetes was affected by the inconsistent call times.

The inspectors found that several being were being put to bed earlier than they wanted – as early as 6.30pm.

The report stated: "A member of staff confirmed that several people were being put to bed earlier than they wanted. They told us that 9pm care visits could be completed by care staff as early as 6.30pm and said "Who wants to get into bed at that time?"

Many relatives said care staff did not always have the skills required.

"One relative told us they felt some staff could be 'heavy handed' when using the hoist and required further training."

A number of the people spoken to said they had raised concerns and did not feel they were adequately addressed. Complaints were not always recorded in the service's complaints folder.

The inspectors' report states: "Some people told us managers were approachable and they were happy with the service. However we received a high volume of complaints from people about the service they received, in particular with the time they received their care visits."

In response to the report, director Nash Khosla said: "We are working with the CQC to get everything sorted out.

"They did raise some issues, but they were only minor issues and they are all being addressed.

"We have just got to meet with the CQC and get it all sorted.

"It is not that we haven't done anything.

"We always work with the CQC although I have never had problems like this in 16 years. I am 100 per cent confident by the next inspection everything will be fine."

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