Bury St Edmunds Guildhall Street Availl homecare service requires improvement after Care Quality Commission inspection identifies failings

A Bury St Edmunds homecare service has been told it requires improvement after a watchdog inspection identified issues with safety and leadership.

Availl, a service run by WilsonParker Limited that offers care to people in their own homes, was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on March 29 after it was previously found to have shortfalls in staffing, safe care and governance.

While the CQC found some improvement in the quality of care and risk management plans at the service, which is based in Guildhall Street and had 27 users at the time, inspectors deemed it was still in breach of regulations.

In a published report, the watchdog said governance systems in place were ineffective and that ongoing progress had been impacted by changes in management, with the service running without a registered manager since February 2021.

Staff also said the changes in management had impacted on morale.

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While systems were in place to ensure staff received appropriate training and safeguarding processes were found to be in place, inspectors were told service users experienced constant changes in care staff and did not always have the opportunity to give feedback.

People said staff were kind and caring and they felt they were treated with respect.

Inspectors found improvements had been made to systems to assess and manage risk while improvements were ongoing to support users to have maximum choice and control and deliver care in the least restrictive way.

Auditing systems were found to need development to consistently evidence and document actions taken and lessons learnt.

During the inspection there were mixed reviews about the communication from the office, with some people saying it was very poor.

The service, which has been rated requires improvement for the last two inspections, was found to require improvement in safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership categories.

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It was described as ‘good’ in the caring category, and overall was given a rating of requires improvement.

Founder Paula Wilson-Parker said: “It has been a very challenging couple of years for all care providers. Staffing difficulties during and following the covid pandemic have continued to be problematic for many.

“Improvements are already underway to raise the rating. The senior management team have implemented an action plan for immediate improvements. We are determined that Availl (Bury St Edmunds) will fall inline with our other branches, which are currently rated as Good with CQC.”

The CQC will continue to monitor Availl to ensure they improve their rating to at least ‘good’.