A CARE service provider in Basingstoke has been told it is ‘inadequate’ for the way in which it is led following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), despite inspectors raising concerns more than a year ago.

The CQC visited Maycare in June, and a report published last month said it remains ‘requires improvement’ overall, but ‘inadequate’ for the way in which it is led.

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The company, based at Vickers Business Centre, in Priestley Road, provides personal care and support to people in their own homes and was supporting 52 people at the time of the inspection.

Inspectors found the service was recruiting staff without “robust and safe recruitment procedures”.

When the CQC inspected Maycare more than a year ago in June 2021, it found the provider had “failed to ensure a robust recruitment procedure in place” which was a breach of regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

More than a year later, it found the provider had still not rectified this issue and it has now taken enforcement action.

It said: “Not enough improvement has been made at this inspection and the provider was still in breach of regulation 19.”

The CQC said the registered manager had “not taken sufficient action to meet the regulations which were identified as breached at the last inspection”.

It added: “The recruitment process for new staff continued to not be robust and meant there was a risk people would be supported by staff who were unsafe.”

The CQC report said that people’s care “was not provided for the amount of time commissioned in order to meet their needs”.

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It added: “Visits were consistently shorter than the scheduled call and some people and their relatives told us people felt rushed by busy staff. Some people experienced times when care staff did not arrive, or arrived late. Some people said they were not always contacted to say staff were going to be late.”

The CQC said it received “mixed feedback” about the quality of the service provided, with some people happy with the care they received while others were not.

Inspectors found that people were not always supported to take their medicines as prescribed and people “were not protected from the risks of Covid-19 because there was not a staff testing programme in place”.

The CQC said it identified “continued breaches” by the provider but said it was “mindful of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic” when deciding what enforcement action to take.

Its report said: “We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.”

The report only covered the CQC’s findings in relation to the service being safe and well-led.

For the key questions not inspected – effective, caring and responsive – it used the ratings awarded at the last inspection which were all ‘good’.

Maycare was graded as ‘requires improvement’ for safety at its previous inspection and this remained following the latest inspection.

The CQC said: “This means some aspects of the service were not always safe and there was limited assurance about safety. There was an increased risk that people could be harmed.”

It found that Maycare did not have an “effective system in place to ensure staff were safe to work with people who received care”.

It found one new staff member did not have a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in place before they started working with people.

The CQC also found that new staff had not completed safeguarding training.

Maycare has been asked for a comment. 

A spokesperson for the CQC said: "CQC can confirm that following our inspection of Maycare in Basingstoke 21 June, we have taken regulatory action to focus the providers' attention on areas of improvement that are needed. 

"As with all CQC enforcement action, the provider has a right to challenge this. CQC will report further on this when we are able to do so."