By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
A Nottinghamshire home care agency found to be providing “inadequate” safety and leadership measures has outlined plans to improve on its gradings.
DCK Care, headquartered in Wollaton Road, Beeston, was visited by inspectors at healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March following concerns about staffing, training and management.
The organisation, which had 12 people receiving ‘regulated activity’ at the point of inspection, had previously been rated as ‘good’ by inspectors in 2019.
However, on the visit, the organisation was found to be incorrectly administering medicines to its clients and failed to have adequate medicine records.
This, the inspectors said, put people “at risk of not receiving their medicines or receiving their prescribed medicines unsafely”.
The inspectors also commented on issues with risk assessments, an absence of care plans for some people and a lack of “suitably-qualified staff”.
It was found these issues left people “at risk of harm”, with a lack of “consistency” in staffing and people being employed without adequate training.
The report, published at the end of May, also states there were issues with lessons not being learned following mistakes, including following a safeguarding “incident”, and a lack of “robust infection prevention” measures.
And there were issues with a lack of a “person-centred, open or inclusive” culture, as well as the registered manager not being aware of their responsibilities, sharing information and apologising.
This came alongside some issues with staff not consistently arriving at clients’ homes on time, with the inspectors stating “call times and lengths were unpredictable”.
However, management at the organisation have now outlined measures they are implementing to address the inspectors’ concerns.
Staff employed by the business must now complete medication competency assessments and there will be a re-assessment of medication training for all staff.
DCK Care will also ensure medications are recorded on its systems and staff are observed and guided on medications until they understand the systems.
There will also be “comprehensive” risk assessments and management plans, which are “regularly reviewed and documented” on its own portal and on clients’ files.
Internal audits will take place every two months, the organisation says, after all staff have been assigned clear and “defined” tasks in their roles.
And there will be an “overhaul” of the system for filing and record-keeping, which the organisation says will ensure “all records are filed accordingly every week”.
On recruitment, the organisation says staff will not begin their role before their disclosure and barring service (DBS) check is complete and before two references from former employers have cleared.
This will accompany mandatory training for new staff and a reminder for care workers to complete extra training and refreshers.
Any young carers will be re-inducted into the team so they understand the “service user’s needs”, alongside further mandatory training and assessments, while recruitment will be “restructured” to ensure new employees have completed relevant training.
Daisy Clifford, the organisation’s registered manager, also said in a statement the inspection came at a time when she was dealing with the death of her mother.
She says a temporary manager was employed during her absence, leading to the leadership and recruitment issues referenced by the CQC, and said changes are being implemented across the organisation.
In the statement, she added: “I was not able to concentrate with all the daily quality checks as I was upset and out of my mind due to the loss of my mother.
“However, we have spoken to one client who reported they had spoken to CQC when requested and had actually given a bad report.
“Since we started making changes, they now believe things are very positive and think the care given is excellent.”
She adds all changes being implemented by the organisation have been communicated to the CQC.
