Hearts of Care Agency

“This was the first inspection of this service since registration.”

“We found 5 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding, staffing, person centred care, and governance at this assessment.”

“We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.”

“Care plans did not put the person at the centre of the care planning process and did not reflect people’s needs and preferences. Risks were not always identified and mitigated.”

“The provider’s safeguarding processes were not effective in recognising and acting on safeguarding concerns. Risks to people were not always effectively identified and assessed by staff and the provider’s management team. The provider did not have effective systems and processes in place to ensure staff competencies were appropriately checked and monitored. The provider did not ensure people’s mental capacity was adequately assessed and that they supported people to fully engage in the assessments. People were at risk of their rights not always being upheld and their decisions not being respected. The provider’s systems and processes did not fully consider national best practice guidance on supporting people with learning disability and autistic people, for example around assessing their needs, wishes and experiences of living with a learning disability.”

“Governance systems were not effective in identifying failings or addressing areas for improvement. Although the computer system used by the provider could produce audits there was no evidence that these were routinely produced and analysed for themes and trends.”

“In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a time frame within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.”