A SERVICE that provides care and support for people with learning disabilities and mental health needs has been told it needs to improve following an inspection.

Opportunities for Adults and Children, run by Purple Oak Support at The Wellington Centre, in Winchester Road, Andover, was visited by the Care Quality Commission in February and a report published in April said it ‘requires improvement’ overall.

Inspectors visited after receiving concerns relating to the quality of care, leadership and governance.

At the time of the inspection, 54 people were receiving support in 24-hour supported living houses, each with their own allocated house manager and staff team.

Other people living in the community also received care and support.

The CQC report said: “The provider failed to ensure sufficient numbers of suitably skilled, qualified, and experienced staff were deployed to meet people's needs at all times.

“People were not always provided with appropriate support to manage their medicines, and monitoring medication administration was not carried out effectively.

“The provider did not always conduct robust assessments to determine risk. Risk was not always managed effectively.”

Inspectors found that safe recruitment processes were not always “thoroughly followed” and that “decisions made in people’s best interest were not always assessed in line with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005”.

Inspectors received “mixed feedback” from people, relatives and staff about the quality of care provided and the leadership and governance procedures.

The report said: “We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

“'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.”

The CQC found that people were not always supported to have maximum choice and, at times, care “failed to promote people’s dignity, privacy and human rights”.

The service was last inspected in 2019 when it was graded as ‘good’.

At the recent inspection it was graded as ‘requires improvement’ for safety and leadership.

Staff told inspectors that “staffing needs to get better”.

However, inspectors did receive some positive comments from relatives, including that staff are kind and “do an amazing job”.

The CQC identified various breaches in relation to regulation medicines, staffing and quality assurance processes.

It has asked the provider to send a report setting out what action it will take.

Inspectors said that during the inspection, the provider sent various action plans, records and correspondence “demonstrating they have responded promptly and appropriately regarding the concerns we identified. The provider also contacted the local authority safeguarding team to share information of concern”.

The CQC will meet with the provider following the publication of the report to “discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good”.

The categories ‘effective’, ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ were not inspected by the CQC and remain ‘good’.

Lisa Rogers, CEO of Purple Oak Support, said it has gone through a "significant period of growth" since November 2021, with successful tendering for contracts with Hampshire County Council seeing "change and expansion across the last 18 months at a time when we were still working under restrictions and challenges brought about by the Covid pandemic". 

She added: "Like many social care organisations, staffing levels continue to put our existing workforce under ongoing strain. Our integration plans for transfers involving four incoming groups of established staff over a period of six months have not been achieved in full, which has no doubt affected the outcome of our recent inspection.

"The team and I are working openly with our CQC inspectors and HCC to ensure that we return quickly to the levels of performance and quality that both the people we support and our colleagues, should expect.

"Our action plan to address the identified areas of concern are well under way and we have been progressing with improvements over recent weeks.

"We have the privilege of supporting and working with an incredible group of people across Andover, Eastleigh and Winchester and we are committed to providing them with the service that they deserve."

She advised anyone with questions or concerns following the inspection to email enquiries@purpleoaksupport.org.