Leeds care service put in ‘special measures’ by health watchdog

A care service in Leeds has been put in “special measures” to protect people after it was found staff were giving residents un-prescribed medicine and performing medical duties for which they were not qualified.

ILS24 Health Care Ltd, which gives personal care to adults in their own homes, was overall rated “inadequate” after an inspection last year, a spokesperson for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

While relatives thought their loved ones were “treated well” and care was not rushed, people with complex needs were not properly assessed, meaning staff did not have up-to-date information to keep them safe, inspectors said.

ILS24 Health Care Ltd has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

At the time of the inspection, held between 29 October and 16 December, 11 people were receiving support from the service, which is based in Mabgate, the CQC said.

Following the inspection, the service’s overall rating, as well as its ratings for being safe and well-led, was downgraded by the CQC from “requires improvement” to “inadequate”.

Meanwhile, its ratings for being effective and caring were downgraded from “good” to “requires improvement”.

However, the CQC said the service’s “good” rating for being responsive had been renewed.

As part of the inspection late last year, five breaches of regulation in relation to providing safe care and treatment were found, according to the CQC.

Those included medicines management, the need for consent, staffing levels and whether the appropriate people were employed, as well as governance, inspectors said.

It was also found that ILS24 Health Care Ltd staff did not always record people’s consent in the correct way and leaders did not encourage staff to share information when things went wrong.

However, the service did have effective policies and procedures in place to maintain good standards of infection prevention and control and staff were aware what action to take if they suspected any abuse.

Linda Hirst, CQC deputy director of operations in the North, said: “We found leaders didn’t have a good enough understanding of the service to ensure people were receiving safe care.

“It was also concerning that staff were providing people with some basic nursing support which the service isn’t registered to do, and the registered manager didn’t know they had to register with us to legally be able to provide this.”

Ms Hirst said that people were sometimes given medicines by staff even though there was no record of them being prescribed for them, and those were not being recorded after they had been given.

“This meant it was unclear what medicines people had received, which could put them at risk,” she said.

ILS24 Healthcare Ltd service leaders had been “told where we expect to see rapid improvement”, Ms Hirst said.

“We’ll continue to monitor the service closely to keep people safe during this time,” she added.