Fairway Homecare's head office on Duke Street, Sutton Coldfield. Picture: Google
The previous inspection found that the care company 'required improvement', a rating that has since dropped to 'inadequate' after a number of faults were found in their service, including a lack of training, unsafe practice, and inconsistencies. The critical report said:"Allegations of abuse were not always reported or investigated. We found incidents or concerns about people's safety had not been acted upon. For example, the provider hadn't taken enough action to safeguard a person who had an unexplained injury. The provider hadn't raised the matter with the local authority as a safeguarding alert and no records relating to the incident were kept. This put people at risk of ongoing potential abuse.
Following their inspection, the service is now in special measures, meaning it will be kept under review to ensure"significant improvements" are being made. For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. Alex O’Neill, the company's operations director, said:"We are extremely disappointed with the report however we welcome the feedback and support from CQC and have already made significant strides to rectify the findings.