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.

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

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.

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.

"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"

"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.

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.

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?

"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"

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.

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.

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.

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"

"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"

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:

"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 🤯

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’.

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.

"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

"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.

"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.

An inspection in February 2022 saw CQC rate everything as good, except well-led which they considered required improvement.

Inspectors considered that the registered manager was aware of their duties under the Duty of Candour, however they noted that they received mixed feedback from relatives.

One astute relative told inspectors:

“There tends to be excuses for things rather than put his hands up and admit things went wrong and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The unannounced July 2022 inspection saw the domains of safe and well-led rated inadequate, with an inadequate rating overall.

"People were being deprived of their liberty unlawfully.

Prior to the inspection we were informed of incidents whereby staff were locking people in their bedrooms without the necessary skills to open the door independently; and staff turned off people’s water supplies in their room to ensure they could not flush items down the toilet or cause a flood"

"Staff told us that people were locked in their bedrooms so that they did not walk into other people’s rooms causing distress.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) written authorisations in place did not authorise the use of such restrictive practices"

They were locking people in their bedrooms. Imprisoning them. And then turning off the water supply to their rooms.

Award winning specialist care in 2022.

There are similarities to the non-care provided at Inglewood House in relation to safeguarding.

"People were at risk of abuse as the service had an embedded culture whereby staff members were unable to identify, escalate and report poor practice.

On the first day of the inspection we observed staff unlawfully restraining one person.

The staff member had failed to use de-escalation techniques and used physical restraint as a first response instead of a last resort"

"The staff member was unclear on how to safely support the person who was attempting to leave the service without direct support from staff.

Incidents of physical restraint were not documented, which meant healthcare professionals were unable to accurately assess their needs as they did not have a clear evidential history of the behaviours people engaged in".

"On the second day of the inspection, the area manager informed us that she had located 53 incident and body map documents which had not been reported to the local authority nor thoroughly investigated to minimise repeat incidents.

The incident forms were not completed appropriately and had not all been reviewed by senior staff to identify patterns and trends in order to prevent reoccurrence".

Unlawful, undocumented restraint.

In full sight of CQC inspectors.

An area manager apparently uncovering 53 incidents not reported to safeguarding on day two of the inspection.

Why does it take CQC turning up at an Achieve Together home for them to notice that their staff are breaching people’s human rights?

Maybe if they spent more time focusing on the care they were delivering, rather than the propaganda marketing and awards, people might actually have better lives.

Eurgh. This stuff makes me feel filthy. I can't imagine life for people in these places.

@lizjesslinworld @GeorgeJulian

You sort of can. The three dots menu expands and gives you the option of copying the link which you can post, like this: https://home.social/@lizjesslinworld/109428717184096223

I used to miss QT-ing, but appreciate that it creates a different vibe and more connection?