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George Julian Nov 29, 2022

I hate awards. For numerous reasons, mostly because they're self selecting, inherently biased, subjective, and usually a big fat money maker.

Today I wrote about Achieve Together, winners of 2022 LaingBuisson Award, and the inadequate care they're delivering, according to CQC https://www.georgejulian.co.uk/2022/11/29/achieve-together-award-winning-specialist-care-that-cqc-consider-to-be-inadequate/

I'll do a thread too, with replies unlisted so pls boost if you think ppl would be interested

#learningdisability #autism #CQCinadequate #socialcare

georgejulian.co.uk » Achieve Together… award winning specialist care, that CQC consider to be inadequate

I’ve been reporting on the care services that CQC have found to be inadequate routinely for five months now and one of the providers that come up time and again are Achieve Together. If you were to pop over to their website right now you could be mistaken for thinking you were at the wrong […]

The photo above accompanies this statement from a care provider for people with learning disability and autism in the UK:

We were delighted to be awarded this accolade in recognition of the incredible work our teams have done and continue to do day in and day out, supporting people across England and Wales. Emma Pearson, Chief Executive Officer, and Garry Fitton, Chief Financial Officer accepted the award on behalf of Achieve together.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

I've been complaining about the illusion of awards in social care in the UK for years now.

Very old 2014 blog post where I FOI'd all NHS Trusts to see what they spent on awards here https://www.georgejulian.co.uk/2014/11/20/the-data-behind-celebrating-excellence-hsjawards/

If you can face looking at Twitter there's an old video here https://twitter.com/i/status/1440658752978362370 or in the blog post at the top of this thread.

TLDR: Awards are a scam. An illusion. They don't mean anything.

That in itself doesn't stop providers applying for them, helps with marketing you see

georgejulian.co.uk » The data behind celebrating excellence #HSJAwards

Last night saw the annual HSJ Awards hit our twitterstreams. Billed as ‘the largest celebration of healthcare excellence in the UK, highlighting the most innovative and successful people and projects in the sector’, the photo above (via Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust) clearly shows the scale of the ‘celebration’. Alastair McLellan, the HSJ […]

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

The recent LaingBuisson Awards appear to have failed to do any due diligence, but maybe that's not the point.

Remember in the UK the constant refrain that social care is in crisis.... look at the prices

Achieve Together spent just shy of £1k for their CEO and CFO to pick up these ‘awards’.

No mention in their news article they took any people actually delivering care and support, or any people who they support, for whom their salaries, profits and awards rely, with them.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

CQC have published two reports into Achieve Together services this month, while they were picking up awards, people they are paid to support were at risk of abuse and neglect.

First up Inglewood House, inadequate since May 2022.

This was an unannounced targeted inspection because of concerns that CQC had received relating to safeguarding.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"The inspection was prompted in part by notification of an incident following which a person using the service sustained harm.

This incident is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any regulatory action should be taken.

As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident.

However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the management of risk of safeguarding, reporting and training"

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"This inspection examined those risks".

Award winning specialist care in 2022

There was no registered manager in place. This creates a gap in accountability, and no doubt contributes to the inadequate care provided.

The registered manager position is important because they have to register with CQC to say that they are managing the service. They are then in turn, alongside providers, legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of care and support provided.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

In May there was a registered manager in post but CQC discovered they’d been working remotely since April 2020.

"The registered manager and provider had failed to investigate concerns relating to people being abused at the service.

This was despite evidence that indicated poor staff culture.

Although this has now been addressed by them the failure to have robust oversight of the poor culture had a direct impact on the people living at Inglewood".

That was May.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

One relative told CQC in April:

"We’ve been trying to get people to listen to us for over a year and nobody has taken any action".

Do any of these awards ever do any due diligence, or do they just take the self promoted propaganda at face value?

CQC took action after their last inspection, placing conditions on the provider’s registration and cancelling the manager’s registration.

So what did they find on this targeted inspection from award winning Achieve Together?

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"Not enough improvement had been made at this inspection and the provider was still in breach of regulation 13.

People were not always protected from abuse and neglect.

There had been a recent incident where a serious safeguarding concern had been identified by staff and this had not been reported in a timely way.

This meant police and other professionals did not know about the concern immediately to take action to safeguard the person"

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

This is gut churning stuff. The April inspection, reported in May, was conducted in part because CQC received concerns about people not being protected from abuse and unsafe care being delivered to people.

Their inspection laid bare how bad those were. Achieve Together promised they’d sort it out.

Well what do you know. They didn't.

People not only remained at risk of abuse and neglect, they were abused and neglected. A serious safeguarding concern was identified, and not reported. AGAIN.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

Nearly every inquest I’ve covered following a death in social care services the same issues arise.

Poor recording keeping, collective remembering when after the event a manager from the provider starts asking questions and getting people to ‘remember’ what happened.

Then by the time the police, CQC or the coroner are investigating there’s a version of events, with no evidential basis, but a sort of apathetic shrug.

To be clear I’m not saying someone died at Inglewood House.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

I wouldn’t be surprised if they had, but the point is about the institutional cover up that occurs when there’s poor recording, late or non reporting to safeguarding etc. As there had been in April and May.

Yet again the CQC inspectors seem to think that Achieve Together have it all in hand:

"The provider responded immediately during and after the inspection".

Seems a strange statement given they’d been inspected months earlier where apparently they’d also responded immediately.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

CQC found continued breaches in relation to leadership:

"At our last inspection the provider had failed to ensure staff received appropriate training and supervision. This was a breach of Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Not enough improvement had been made at this inspection and the provider was still in breach of regulation 18.

Following a recent serious incident, staff had not followed directions detailed in training courses"

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"They had failed to effectively use their experience to immediately alert other professionals to an incident that had occurred in the home.

This meant that the training had not been effective for staff to understand and act accordingly.

Staff had failed to show their skills and experience when faced with a serious concern.

There had been a delay in sharing important and essential information with professionals who could effectively support people through a serious incident"

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

I am so pleased to see CQC picking up on this.

Simply attending training is not enough to change behaviour, despite the demands for mandatory training in social care, it is not a panacea.

Training is an easy tick box, training transfer and improving practice is a whole other ball game.

One of the final comments in the report I find pretty demoralising too.

I can’t help but wonder whether it speaks to an apathy that’s endemic across the social care system:

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"Since the incident the provider had been working closely with the local authority.

A social care professional said,

“There have been major failings, however, it is how they respond now. And it honestly appears as they are responding well and doing everything to make positive changes for the home and the people living there.”

I wonder where the social care professionals were when people were being abused and neglected.

The notion we just have to judge people on how they respond now 🤯

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

How they respond.

They’ve already been in known breach since April this year.

Kinda sums up how little concern is given to the human rights abuses inflicted on learning disabled and autistic people in this country.

In my opinion the focus shouldn’t simply be on how they respond now, it’s how they got there, while others in the organisation were busy filling out applications for ‘awards’.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

The blog post also covers another report into an inadequate service run by Achieve Together;.

The 7th inadequate report into their services I've reported in the last 5 months.

"The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about people being unlawfully deprived of their liberty".

Concerns that CQC found that to be substantiated.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"Staff did not support people to have the maximum control over their own lives.

Staff did not do everything they could to avoid restraining people.

The service failed to record when staff restrained people, and staff did not learn from those incidents and how they might be avoided or reduced.

Governance processes were not always effective in providing good quality care and support.

Staff did not always understand how to protect people from poor care and abuse"

Award winning care 2022

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse, however, did not always apply it.

Staff spoke positively about the people they supported.

People experienced harm because of a lack of protection, they experienced or were at risk of abuse, including unnecessary restraint, segregation and seclusion"

Human rights breaches. In apparently award winning specialist care.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

"The service had a closed culture whereby people were not supported to live safely and free from unwarranted restrictions because the service failed to adequately assess, monitor and manage safety well.

Staff did not respect people’s rights.

There is a lack of visible leadership, staff were reluctant to report incidents, and management failed to act on known issues".

Award winning specialist care in 2022.

SeanOSullivan Nov 29, 2022

@GeorgeJulian I can definitely read the thread, & was able to boost individual toots within it.
I don’t yet know how to best use the favourite option, or how widely a direct reply like this might be to others on Mastodon.
I do find the threads important in cataloguing such human & commercial abuse of what should be our society’s responsibility, & admit I often get only partway.
I feel that Mastodon is as valid as Twitter for talking about the failings in care for people in society.

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

Hey @SeanOSullivan I didn't know you were here, great to see you. I'm not sure who sees replies, other than those talking, maybe mutual contacts unless a hashtag is used. Not sure.

Thank you so much for commenting. I've been struggling to see how to do quite the level of public commentary/raging I tend to do over here, without feeling like I'm shouting in a library, but maybe that's just imposter syndrome.

Good to know people are reading, always good to know. TY

SeanOSullivan Nov 29, 2022

@GeorgeJulian
I saw a tip about using #debirdify which worked pretty well. You can download a csv file of following and a separate one for followers, and then import them to Mastodon. Seems to work, but I think it’s dependent on when you do the move. If people aren’t already here then I guess they just get missed off. 👍

George Julian Nov 29, 2022

@SeanOSullivan yeh I didn't follow lots of people on Twitter, I used lists, I'm doing it differently here because the lack of pushed content makes it less overwhelming and figure we'll congregate around hashtags in time.