Supported living provider Precious Homes Ltd has been warned to make urgent improvements to its standards of care or face further action from regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
This warning came after a recent unannounced visit by CQC inspectors to Vela Domus on Alnwick Road in London E16, a supported living project for adults with a mental health need, autism, personality disorder or learning difficulty plus challenging behaviour.
Precious Homes provides staff to carry out regulated activity and personal care to people living in their own flats there. Inspectors found that service users had not been given their prescribed doses of medication, staff had not signed for medication they gave, the controlled drugs register was inaccurate and no action had been taken as a result of internal audits. The CQC said that this shows that Precious Homes failed to ensure that service users were protected against the risks associated with the unsafe administration and management of medicines by not appropriately managing the recording and safe administration of prescribed medicines.
Colin Hough, regional director of CQC in London said: “The law says that these are the standards that everyone should be able to expect. Providers have a duty to ensure they are compliant. “This warning sends a clear and public message that Precious Homes needs to address this issue as a matter of urgency or face serious consequences. “Our inspectors will return in the near future and if we find that it the company is not making the required progress we won’t hesitate to use our legal powers to protect the people who use this service.”
