Wolverhampton care company that recruited staff without proper checks is placed in special measures

Lovage Homecare Ltd, based at Salop Street, provides personal care to older people in their own homes.

The CQC announced inspection was partly prompted due to concerns about medicines and poor quality care. The company had also not been inspected since its inception in 2022.

Lovage Care Ltd was rated inadequate overall. The service was also rated 'inadequate' against criteria for being safe, effective and well-led, and 'requires improvement' for being caring and responsive.

The service is now in special measures. This means the CQC will keep it under close review and it will be re-inspected to check on the progress of any improvements.

Amanda Lyndon, the CQC's interim deputy director of operations network Midlands, said: “When we inspected Lovage Homecare Ltd, we found a service with poor leadership and staff who didn’t have the knowledge and skills to support people safely. This left people at serious risk of abuse and avoidable harm.

“We found management had recruited staff without the necessary checks, such as employment references and conviction records. Some recruitment forms were incomplete and interview records were missing. This puts people at risk of being cared for by unsuitable staff.

“During our inspection, we saw staff had little training in how to record care notes, how to promote and support inclusion and diversity, or how to support specific health needs. For example, staff weren’t sure how to support people living with diabetes if they became unwell."

She added: “When we reviewed care plans, we found that people and their families weren’t involved in their choices and their communication needs hadn’t been considered. People did speak positively about their care, yet we found that the care didn’t recognise their individual needs.

“As the service has been rated inadequate and placed in special measures, we’ll continue to monitor it closely to ensure people are safe. If we are not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take further action.”

Inspectors found Lovage Care had failed to notify CQC of an allegation of abuse about a person using the service. The provider and staff showed a lack of understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This left people at risk of being unable to consent to decisions about their care.

The provider did not perform relevant risk assessment checks for mobility, healthcare needs and medicines. A safe and effective recruitment process was not in place.

And the company had not supported staff with the necessary skills and experience to care for people safely.

Lovage Homecare has been approached for a comment.