Leicestershire County Council and its commissioning partners are working closely with a care company to help improve its standards after it was rated inadequate in a CQC report. The CQC report concerns an inspection of the Hales Group, Leicester which took place back in December last year.
The county council and both the East Leicestershire & Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the West Leicestershire CCG were aware of concerns with the Hales Group before the CQC inspection took place.
Teams have worked closely with the company to make significant improvements during January and February to ensure all current care is safely delivered. This has involved overseeing quality assurance improvements, including management changes, additional staff recruitment, assessments being carried out and all care plans in place.
Leicestershire County Council leader, Councillor Nick Rushton, said: “Caring for vulnerable people remains our top priority and that’s why I am very concerned that the CQC has rated the Hales Group as inadequate.
Caring for vulnerable people remains our top priority and that’s why I am very concerned that the CQC has rated the Hales Group as inadequate. want to reassure people that, as soon as we became aware of complaints about Hales, we sent in adult social care teams to help improve standards.
It’s vital that we all have confidence in the care provided to vulnerable people and, along with our partners in the NHS, we’ve worked hard with Hales to improve its service, but we will continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate action, if required.
Person:Councillor Nick Rushton, leader of Leicestershire County CouncilCouncillor Dave Houseman, the county council’s cabinet member for adult social care, has also visited the Hales office in Leicester to discuss the council’s concerns as well as meeting with a number of people receiving home care.
Coun Houseman said: “I have visited the Hales office in Leicester to express my concerns and to discuss their improvement plans. You’ll be aware that we had problems when we launched Help to Live at Home last year, as a large provider withdrew from the contract.
"Thanks to the action we took then and the lessons we have learned, I can assure you that this service is now running much more effectively and caring for around 1700 people across Leicestershire. However, if anyone does have concerns about home care, please ring our customer services team on 0116 305 0004 or use the online enquiry form and we will investigate.”
Carmel O'Brien, Chief Nurse at East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG, added: “We take the concerns raised in the CQC report very seriously and will work closely with the county council and our NHS partners to address these, putting relevant measures in place to deliver improvements.”
Media note: Here is a film of Councillor Nick Rushton, the leader of Leicestershire County Council, and Councillor Dave Houseman, cabinet member for adult social care, talking about the situation - https://youtu.be/czwIjbz4wd0