GGW Care Ltd, a care service provider that operates out of a small industrial estate in South Croydon, has been placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection conducted last October.
The dozens of elderly clients who were receiving GGW Care’s services “weren’t always safe”, according to the CQC, due to recruitment issues “which could lead to having unqualified or inappropriate staff working with people”.
The CQC inspectors found, “Some people weren’t always being given their medicines safely, or sometimes at all.”
GGW Care works from an office in the Capital Business Centre on Carlton Road, providing care services in their homes for older people, people with physical disabilities, people with mental health needs, as well as people with dementia in Croydon, Bromley and Surrey. At the time of the CQC inspection, the service was supporting 25 people.
Following last autumn’s inspection, GGW Care Ltd has been given an overall “inadequate” rating, having been rated “inadequate” on safety, “requires improvement” on effectiveness of the service, caring and responsive, and determined that the service’s leadership is “inadequate”.
According to Companies House records, GGW Care Ltd was registered as a business in 2016.
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Mary Monovis, who lists “nurse” by profession and described on the firm’s website as the “registered manager”, the the company’s sole director. In its latest set of accounts, up to November 2022, GGW Care had an average of 83 employees, with tax and money owed to other creditors close to £350,000.
Prior to the latest inspection, GGW Care had been rated overall as “requires improvement”.
The CQC inspectors said that in October they found, “The registered manager didn’t always have a clear grasp of the day to day running of the service. It was hard to find clear and consistent information. Some records were missing or inaccurate.”
And the inspectors said, “The registered manager and provider didn’t consistently show that they had the necessary skills and knowledge for their positions.”
In a statement issued by the CQC today, the watchdog said that it has “rated GGW Care Limited in south London inadequate and placed it in special measures to protect people from harm”.
The CQC added that “special measures” means that GGW Care “will be kept under close review… to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made”.
Antoinette Smith, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said: “When we inspected GGW Care Limited, it was disappointing to find a lack of effective leadership and a lack of progress on the improvements we told them to make at our previous inspection.
Inadequate: the findings of the CQC inspectors at the South Croydon-based care provider
“People who were using this service weren’t always safe as the service didn’t have good processes around recruitment. This meant they didn’t always hire staff safely, which could lead to having unqualified or inappropriate staff working with people.
“Some people using the service were being let down by leaders who didn’t give appropriate training to staff around how to communicate with them. Staff were told by the provider to improve their communication skills and find the best way to communicate with people. This puts the burden on staff rather than then putting a good process in place.”
On the GGW Care Ltd website, it states: “Quality is at the forefront of everything we do.
“We maintain stringent standards to ensure the safety, comfort and satisfaction of our clients. Regular quality assessments and open communication with our clients and their families allow us to continuously improve our services and provide the best care possible.
“Staff training is an important part of both compliance and personal development, and with this comes GGW Care Limited commitment to instilling relevant learning across all levels of our business.”
The company also claims that each new member of staff “undertakes a 12-week induction programme comprising of both mandatory and statutory training”.
But according to CQC’s Smith: “Our inspectors saw from the records that some people weren’t always being given their medicines safely, or sometimes at all. For example we saw two people that needed multiple doses of medication each day. Staff didn’t always record whether each dose was given, creating a risk that they might not get their medications.
“The service must do better to treat people with dignity,” Smith said.
“We’ve reported our findings to the provider, and they know what they must address. We will monitor the service to ensure people are receiving safe care. If sufficient progress hasn’t been made, we will not hesitate to take action to ensure people’s safety and wellbeing.”
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