Care agency urged to improve after breaking national regulations in Poole

A CARE agency has been told it needs to make urgent improvements after breaking national regulations in the Poole area.

The Care Quality Commission issued a formal warning to SCA Care following two unannounced inspections in November and December.

The health and social care watchdog found that care workers were missing visits.

Also, people who relied on the service were not always being supported to eat and drink enough.

Appropriate arrangements for recording medicine were not in place, and medicines were not being administered safely.

Individuals and their relatives also met “significant and persistent difficulties” in making contact with the SCA’s Wallisdown office to address difficulties or ask for help.

SCA Care currently provides care for 144 clients in their own homes in Poole and the surrounding areas.

Following the issue of four warning notices to SCA, Ian Biggs, deputy director of the CQC in the south said: “Care agencies provide a vital service to help people get on with their daily lives.

“But if they can’t be relied on to turn up as planned it can be very worrying, particularly for people who depend on their care worker and may have no one else to call on.

“SCA Care must not take on any new clients until this has been resolved to our satisfaction.”

Mr Biggs added: “We will return in the near future and if we find that this agency is not making the required progress we won’t hesitate to use our legal powers to protect the people who use the service.”

‘Disappointed’

An SCA spokeswoman said the agency was “highly disappointed” to have had the warning.

“We accept the criticism and deeply regret any distress, inconvenience or interruption to service experienced by any of our care customers or their families,” she said.

“We also regret the impact this situation may have had on our excellent reputation to date and any distress to SCA’s customers in other areas not affected by these matters.

“As a matter of urgency we have implemented concrete steps to make sure that we comply fully with CQC and other legal regulations in the Poole area.”