The Care Quality Commission
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Archived: Exclusive Care Services

Overall: Inadequate read more about inspection ratings

20A Lowfield Street, Dartford, DA1 1HD (01322) 275439

Provided and run by:
Exclusive Allied Services Limited

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

We completed the assessment between 27 February 2024 and 04 March 2024. People did not always receive good quality care and support because staff were not always trained to meet their needs. Staff had failed to ensure the risk of a closed culture was minimalised. The provider had failed to ensure effective systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of harm and abuse. Incident and accident management were inadequate and not effective. Medicines were not always managed safely. People’s needs were not sufficiently assessed, and care plans were not regularly updated to reflect changes in people’s needs. The management and oversight of the service was inadequate. The provider had failed to identify the urgent and serious, widespread concerns that were identified during the 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. The provider had failed to ensure they met the principles of ‘Right support, right care, right culture’. We found 7 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safeguarding, safe care and treatment, staffing, dignity and respect, person centred care, notifications and governance. We took urgent action to prevent the provider from re-admitting people back into the service and from taking on new packages of care.

24 August 2021

During a routine inspection

About the service

Exclusive Care Services is an independent domiciliary care agency which provides personal care and support for people in their own homes. The agency provides care and support for people in the Gravesend area of Kent. People receiving care and support were predominantly children aged six years old and up, young adults while some were elderly. At the time of our inspection, they were supporting 60 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Feedback from people and relatives were positive. One person said, “I’m very happy with the service I’m having.” A relative said, “They are very professional. They are thorough.”

Children and young people were protected from the risk of abuse. Staff knew what their responsibilities were in relation to keeping children and young people safe from the risk of abuse. There were systems in place to support staff and people to stay safe. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. The registered manager had appropriate arrangements in place to ensure there were always enough staff to cover calls.

Medicines were managed safely, and people received them as prescribed. Policies and procedures were in place for the safe administration of medicines and medicine competency checks were completed for staff.

Robust recruitment processes were in place. This safeguarded and prevented unsuitable staff from working with children, young people and adults. Staff were skilled in carrying out their role. A relative said, “I think strongly that they have to be trained for constant intervention and interaction with the client.” The registered manager ensured staff were appropriately trained.

Staff treated children, young people and adults with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs. They provided emotional support to them.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. For example, staff had the information they needed to support people to make choices. Staff knew people had the right to make unwise decisions.

Complaints policies and procedures were in place and these were followed. Complaints were recorded and actioned.

There was a system in place to monitor the quality of the service. This had been effective in identifying where improvements were needed and the registered manager actioned these.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 15 January 2020 and this was the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the length of time since the service registered with us.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.