A home care service has been suspended for three months after watchdogs said its standard of care was “completely unacceptable”.

Angy Care Limited, based in Wrotham Road, Gravesend, has been rated “inadequate” and placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an inspection carried out in September.

In 2019, the independent domiciliary care agency was rated “good” for being safe, effective and caring and “requires improvement” for being responsive and well-led but is now “inadequate” in all areas.

CQC deputy director of operations in the south, Serena Coleman, said: “When we inspected Angy Care Limited, we found poor leadership across the service and inadequate systems to keep people safe.

“The standard of care we saw being provided by Angy Care Limited is completely unacceptable.

“We expect reasonable engagement from the leaders about their services, whether that is during inspection activity or in our regular monitoring, and people are at risk of coming to harm if the service is operating without the benefit of CQC oversight.

“We stopped the service from supporting people and suspended it from operating for three months because of our concerns.

“They are now in special measures which means CQC will closely monitor the service to ensure that improvements are made and CQC receives the assurances it needs to be sure people are safe.

“The standard of care we saw being provided by Angy Care Limited is completely unacceptable…”

“If this does not happen, we will not hesitate to take further regulatory action.”

The CQC’s report, published on November 15, said the firm’s registered manager did not attend or engage with inspectors, leaving another manager in charge in their absence.

However, they were not permitted to access patients’ records or the system, meaning the healthcare watchdog was not able to gather enough evidence to ensure the service was safe.

The report added: “The registered manager did not demonstrate they had the experience, capability and integrity to ensure care and support could be delivered safely and that risks were well managed.

“The provider and registered manager did not lead by example, they did not demonstrate openness or honesty.”

Inspectors also said the business manager did not know how to safeguard people and were told there were no incidents, but if there were they would need to wait for the registered manager to return to access the system.

The report added: “This meant immediate action could not be taken to keep people safe from abuse, neglect or harm.”

Concerns were also raised over staff training, their understanding of how to support and manage patients’ health risks, and whether they could administer medicines.

In one case, a person with diabetes had no information in their care plan on how to manage it, what risks it posed or how staff should support them, leaving them at “serious risk of harm”.

Inspectors added: “Language in one person’s care plan was not dignified. We could not be assured that people were treated with kindness, compassion and dignity.”

However, people said they were “generally happy with their care”.

Angy Care Limited provides personal care and support for people in their own homes throughout the country.

The firm has been approached for comment.