Wolverhampton carers caught stealing from elderly resident

Wolverhampton-based Olive Care Ltd was criticised by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for failing to keep residents safe from abuse.

It comes after two employees were convicted of theft after targeting someone using the home-based service.

Bosses at the Bath Avenue agency also failed to carry out checks including references and criminal history for the employees, breaching health and safety regulations.

A CQC report said: “We asked the provider for records of recruitment checks completed for the two staff members convicted of theft.

“The provider told us these records were not available to view as they were held by the police, however, the police informed us this was not the case.

“The provider was not able to evidence they had completed appropriate recruitment checks prior to these staff members working with vulnerable people.”

'Widespread and significant shortfalls'

The agency, which had six employees caring for three older people at the time of inspection, provides care within people’s homes.

But inspectors found care visits were not consistent, medicines were not always given as prescribed and staff were not always aware of people’s health conditions.

One person using the service had diabetes but staff were not aware of the symptoms needed to be monitored, inspectors said.

The report added: “There were widespread and significant shortfalls in people’s care, support and outcomes.

“There were widespread and significant shortfalls in service leadership. Leaders and the culture they created did not assure the delivery of high-quality care.

“People were not protected from the risk of abuse due to the provider’s failure to develop robust safeguarding systems.

“People were also not protected from the risk of harm due to inadequate risk management systems.”

The inspection also found carers were not always respectful an dignified, with incontinence wear described as nappies.

But staff at the care agency, which was given 48 hours’ notice of the inspection between May 28 and June 3, were described by one person as “kind and caring”.

The service, which will face another inspection within six months, now has a maximum of 12 months to improve or risk closure.

It was rated inadequate in the ‘safe’, effective’, ‘responsive’ and ‘well-led’ categories, and requiring improvement in the ‘caring’ category.

Olive Care Ltd was unavailable for comment.