A health watchdog had to take “urgent action” and deregister a home care service after an inspection raised concerns.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it had taken urgent action to prevent Exclusive Care Services, formerly based in Lowfield Street, Dartford, from admitting people back into its service and from taking on new packages of care.

The watchdog rated the firm “Inadequate” following an assessment carried out between February 27 and March 4.

The service provides specialist care packages to people with needs such as physical and learning disabilities, sensory disability, mental health, dementia, Alzheimer’s and palliative care support.

In its latest report, published at the beginning of July, inspectors said they had found seven breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safeguarding, safe care and treatment, staffing, dignity and respect, person-centred care, notifications and governance.

They also said staff had failed to ensure the risk of a “closed culture” was minimalised.

The provider had also failed to ensure effective systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of harm and abuse, the CQC said.

The report states that people did not always receive good quality care and support as staff were not always trained to meet their needs.

Incident and accident management were found to be inadequate and not effective, and medicines were not always managed safely.

It adds: “People’s needs were not sufficiently assessed, and care plans were not regularly updated to reflect changes in people’s needs.

“The management and oversight of the service was inadequate.”

According to the report, the provider failed to identify the “urgent and serious widespread concerns” that were identified during the assessment.

The report adds: “We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

“The attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff did not consistently lead to people leading empowered lives...”

“The provider had failed to ensure they met the principles of ‘right support, right care, right culture’.”

Inspectors noted that while some people and relatives they spoke to expressed they were generally happy with their care, others said they were not happy with the support they received, and had a bad experience with the service.

When complaints were made to management, they were “not listened to or acted on appropriately”.

One person said communication was “shocking”, while another relative told inspectors: “They tend not to listen to requests from mum readily and she quite often feels very rushed.”

The report said: “The attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff did not consistently lead to people leading empowered lives.”

This service is now registered at a different address but has not responded to a request for comment.

Exclusive Care Services has been approached for comment.