Supported living service in Herts to shut after being rated inadequate
Precious Homes Hertfordshire was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission
A supported living service in Hertfordshire has chosen to close down after being rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the second time.
Precious Homes Hertfordshire in St Albans, also known as Oster House, provides supported living and personal care services for 15 people who are living with a learning disability, autism, or mental health issues.
The inspection was carried out in October and examined the provisions of personal care for ten people that were living at Precious Homes at the time.
Originally, the inspection was called for after concerns were raised in relation to safeguarding, medicine management, and resident's health and support needs.
It also focused on how safe, effective, and well-led the service was. All three of these areas were rated as inadequate.
This is the second time Precious Homes has been rated inadequate as it was previously placed into special measures in May of this year.
Debbie Ivanova from the CQC said: "During our inspection of Precious Homes Hertfordshire, we were disappointed to find insufficient improvements had been made following our previous inspection, and the provider continued to offer a service which placed people’s wellbeing and safety at risk. This is unacceptable.
“We saw instances of restrictive practice. This is unacceptable, and these incidents show a worrying lack of understanding from staff of the people they are supporting.
“This and other evidence, confirmed to us that staff didn’t have the appropriate training and skills to keep people safe.
“We found breaches in regulation around safety, medicine management and governance. We are taking further enforcement action to protect people, and we will report on this as soon as we’re able to. We will continue to monitor this service in the meantime to ensure people’s safety.”
A spokesperson for Precious Homes said: "The CQC inspection report for Oster House in May 2022 showed that significant improvements needed to be made. In response, we put together a robust improvement plan, which resulted in improvements against the goals set.
"However, the staffing crisis being experienced nationally in the care sector has made it incredibly difficult to achieve the staffing consistency required to implement, embed and sustain sufficient change.
"Regrettably, in the best interests of the people we support, we made the difficult decision to close the service in October. Since this time, we have been working closely with the people supported by the service, their families, staff members, local authorities and the CQC to ensure that those affected are safely transitioned to new accommodation.
"This decision was taken prior to the result of the most recent inspection, which was published on 22nd December."