The Care Quality Commission found London Care (Holloway) were failing to take steps to protect vulnerable Haringey residents. Picture: PA/John Stillwell

»Vulnerable Haringey residents’ safety is being put at risk by a company paid to care for them, a report has revealed.

London Care (Holloway) was told to make urgent improvements after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in June found it was failing to take steps to protect the people it was meant to be looking after.

The report revealed that one care worker could not identify any abuse vulnerable people might experience, or responsibilities should they have had any concerns about safeguarding.

Others required prompting to identify abuse, while some did not understand the signs they should be looking out for – putting vulnerable people at risk.

London Care (Holloway) – which cares for about 600 people in Haringey and Islington – also failed to notify the CQC of three instances when safeguarding concerns had been raised.

Other problems included:

- Care plans not being updated regularly; one resident’s plan did not reflect the changes in the way care workers dealt with financial matters.

- Refresher courses and training not undertaken; a person was dropped after the carer had not completed “moving and transferring” training since 2009.

- Staff unable to identify their line managers, not regularly supervised or appraised.

The CQC report backs up one carried out by Haringey Council, which decided to stop referring people to London Care after an inspection “highlighted concerns within the organisation”.

A spokesman said: “As a matter of urgency, we also asked all individuals referred to London Care (Holloway) if they want us to find an alternative care provider. For those who don’t we will be monitoring the quality of care they receive very closely to ensure it meets the very best standards. That will continue until we are fully satisfied it has corrected the failings identified by us and the CQC.”

A London Care spokesman said: “The management of London Care is disappointed by the recent findings by the CQC of shortcomings in some aspects of service delivery at our Holloway Office and we would like to apologise to any service user who feels that their service has not been of the expected standard.

“We would also like to reassure those that use our services, as well as their families and carers, that we are working closely with the CQC and the local councils with whom we work to address the problems identified, and this includes assigning additional resources to the local management team.

“Whilst we are confident that most of our service users are satisfied with the services they receive, we are taking the concerns raised very seriously and will be looking for significant and demonstrable improvements in service quality over the coming weeks and months.”

CQC inspectors are due to return to London Care (Holloway) in October.