A damning inspection found staff at a care provider did not have relevant skills and ‘no adequate training on autism’ had been provided to workers.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Spring Healthcare Ltd in Bolton, inadequate and placed it in special measures following an inspection in September and October.

The inspection was prompted due to concerns about governance, support to autistic people, the conduct of the registered manager and safeguarding concerns.

Spring Healthcare Limited is a home visit care agency providing personal care to people living in the community. At the time of the inspection, the service was providing support to nine adults and seven children.

Inspectors found safeguarding records were not always accurate and there were not always enough staff to meet people’s assessed needs.

The agency reported difficulties with staffing levels and staff said this had directly impacted the provision of people’s care. Issues with staffing levels meant staff had supported people on their own when the person had been assessed as needing two carers.

A member of staff said: “I don’t know why we don’t have enough staff, we had more at one time, but a lot of staff have left. Sometimes I’m doing two to one support calls on my own.”

The CQC said Spring Healthcare had failed to ensure staff were appropriately skilled to provide support in line with their registration. They are registered to provide support to autistic children and adults.

However, no adequate autism training had been given to staff.

The provider and some staff feedback reflected a lack of understanding of how autistic people can react to staff and services who are not appropriately skilled.

Following this inspection, the care agency’s overall rating has dropped from good to inadequate.

It has also dropped from good to inadequate for being safe and well-led.

It has dropped from good to requires improvement for being effective, caring and responsive.

The service is now in special measures which means it will be kept under review by CQC and re-inspected to check improvements have been made.

Sheila Grant, CQC head of adult social care inspection, said: “When we inspected Spring Healthcare Limited, we were disappointed that the standard of care had significantly dropped since our last inspection in June 2021. People’s basic safety and wellbeing needs weren’t always being met, and risks weren’t effectively managed.

“At our last inspection we recommended the provider increased staffing levels, as they were considering accepting new packages of care. However, at this inspection staffing levels were still not sufficient, which could put people at risk of harm.

“We weren’t assured there were adequate systems in place to store and retrieve records.

“We found one person’s records we wished to review due to a safeguarding incident weren’t available. We were told they had been deleted off the system, as this is what happens when people leave the service.

“This meant there was no accurate record of circumstances around the incident. However, people and relatives told us care was provided by staff who were kind, attentive and warm.

“Carers understood how to promote people’s privacy, dignity and independence. As the service has been rated inadequate and placed in special measures. We will continue to monitor it closely to ensure people are safe. If we are not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take action.”

Spring healthcare Ltd did not respond to a request for comment about the inspection report.