Town Hall pulls Housing With Care service out of special measures

Hackney Council has successfully made improvements to its homecare and supporting living services, following a damning report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating it ‘Inadequate’ earlier this year.

The Town Hall’s Housing with Care service, which provides support to help people, including those with dementia and learning disabilities, is now no longer in breach of regulations, according to the watchdog.

Red-coded stamps over the service’s safety, effectiveness and leadership demanded an immediate action plan to be put in the place by the council, which risked being prevented from operating the service by the CQC if the improvements had not been made.

The latest CQC report reads: “The last rating for this service was Inadequate  and there were multiple breaches of regulations.

“The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

“At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

“This service has been in Special Measures since January 2019. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made.

“The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.”

The rating of the service now sits at ‘requires improvement,’ having seen a swift decline from its ‘good’ rating between 2016 and 2018, with the council saying that the most recent uplift shows that Housing with Care is “moving in the right direction,” as change continues to be embedded and sustained.

The January CQC report detailed multiple failings across the service, including people’s end of life wishes not being captured, medicines not being managed safely, and “piecemeal” systems in place to respond to allegations of abuse.

The Town Hall has now put in place a wide-ranging programme of improvements, including making sure all care plans are co-produced and “person-centred”, recruiting more permanent staff in place of agency staff, and providing regular forums for those using the service and their families and friends.

Cllr Feryal Clark, Deputy Mayor of Hackney and cabinet member for health and social care, said: “Making immediate improvements to the service has been our highest priority since last year to ensure the safety of the service users we support.

“We have been working intensively over the past eight months to address all the areas and to support service users, their families and staff through the process.

“Whilst we are pleased that this has been recognised by the CQC in its follow up report, we are determined to continue improving the service in all areas.”