A home care service has been suspended for three months after watchdogs said its standards of care were “completely unacceptable”.

Angy Care Limited, based in Wrotham Road, Gravesendwas deemed “inadequate” and placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an inspection carried out in September.

In 2019, the independent home care agency was rated ‘good’ for safety, effectiveness and caring and ‘requires improvement’ for responsiveness and good leadership, but is now ‘inadequate’ in all domains.

Serena Coleman, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said: “When we inspected Angy Care Limited we found poor leadership within the service and inadequate systems to keep people safe.

“The quality of care we have seen provided by Angy Care Limited is completely unacceptable.

“We expect reasonable engagement from managers about their services, whether during inspection activities or as part of our regular monitoring, and people risk harm if the service operates without the benefit of CQC monitoring.

“We stopped the service from helping people and suspended it for three months over our concerns.

“They are now subject to special measures, meaning CQC will closely monitor the service to ensure improvements are made and CQC will receive the assurances it needs to make sure people are safe .

“The quality of care we have seen provided by Angy Care Limited is completely unacceptable…”

“If this does not happen, we will not hesitate to take further regulatory action.”

The CQC report, published on November 15, said the company’s registered director failed to attend or engage with inspectors, leaving another director in charge in their absence.

However, they were not allowed to access patient records or the system, meaning the healthcare watchdog was unable to gather enough evidence to ensure the service was safe.

The report added: “The registered manager failed to demonstrate that they had the experience, capacity and integrity to ensure that care and support could be provided safely and that risks were well managed.

“The provider and registered manager did not lead by example, nor were they open or honest.”

Inspectors also said the company manager did not know how to protect people and were told there were no incidents, but if there were, they would have to wait for the registered manager to return to access the system.

The report added: “This meant that no immediate action could be taken to protect people from abuse, neglect or harm. »

Concerns have also been raised about staff training, their understanding of how to care for and manage risks to patients’ health and their ability to administer medication.

In one case, a person with diabetes had no information in their care plan about how to manage it, the risks it posed or how staff should support them, leaving them at “serious risk of prejudice “.

Inspectors added: “The language used in one person’s care plan was not dignified. We could not be assured that people would be treated with kindness, compassion and dignity.

However, people say they are “generally satisfied with their care”.

Angy Care Limited provides personal care and support to people in their homes nationwide.

The company has been contacted for comment.