A CARE agency which provides support to vulnerable people at their homes has been slammed over its “inadequate” leadership.

Right Care (NW) Ltd, based in Bolton, was given a visit by healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), after concerns were raised “in relation to the management of the service”.

A “focused inspection” to review the two key areas of the care provider’s safety and leadership took place.

The three areas of whether the operator is “effective”, “caring” and “responsive” were not examined as no issues were aired in them areas.

And after the CQC inspected the agency, it rated its leadership as “inadequate” – the worst possible score and a fall in standards from its previous ranking of “good”.

Its safety was placed in the category of “requires improvement” – down from “good” again.

There was no registered manager in place at the time of the inspection

A report published this month about the visit said: “There were no processes in place to improve the quality of care and treatment delivered by the service and feedback from people were not responded to.

“Audit systems were not robust and there was a lack of quality assurance audits recorded to assess the quality of records.

“The fitness of employees was not robustly assessed. One staff member received an inadequate reference from their previous care employer, and no risk assessment or risk management system was put in place.

“Staff were not adequately trained in moving and handling and all staff members had not received both, the theory and practical aspects of the training.

“The provider told us they did not provide support to people who are at the end of their lives, however, we reviewed one person’s care plan who was receiving end of life care.”

The CQC has served a warning notice to Right Care for failing to “assess and mitigate the risks relating to the health and safety of service users”.

“Records were not complete, audit and governance systems were not effective, and quality improvement was poor”, the report stated.

The CQC also found that “robust recruitment checks” were not being carried out and has asked Right Care to send a report on what action they are going to take.

The report was compiled after visits by one inspector between August 21 and September 4, with two days notice given to the provider.

Right Care provides a service to younger and older residents with various needs including people with physical disabilities or learning disabilities, sensory impairments, mental health conditions, and dementia.

At the time of the inspection 22 people were using the service.

A spokesman for the agency said: "Right Care went through a difficult period at the start of this current pandemic.

"Covid-19 has affected many businesses around Bolton.

"However, we have identified improvements we need to make to ensure we become outstanding.

"We have taken this very seriously and made an immense amount of changes since then by working closely with the relevant authorities and the CQC.

"A new management team has been put into place and we are constantly expanding and recruiting for carers to join our team in Bolton."