A Rainham care provider must make “urgent improvements to keep people safe”, inspectors have found.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Radiant Life Care inadequate overall following an inspection on September 3, downgrading it from its good rating obtained in November 2017.

After the latest inspection, its rating was downgraded from good to inadequate in the safe and well-led categories, with effective, responsive and caring sections rated requires improvement.

Radiant Life manager Tayo Babatunde said: "The gaps identified during the last CQC inspection which led to a reduction of our rating were mainly due to the impact of the pandemic on our operations.

"We continued to provide domiciliary services all through the pandemic and accommodated as many referrals as possible to our service in a bid to ease the pressure on hospital bed spaces within the NHS."

The report noted systems and processes to safeguard people were “not being operated effectively”, with two people accusing care staff of theft. An investigation into this was inconclusive.

Further concerns were raised over the staffing and recruitment at the care provider, and risk assessments not being in place.

Medicines were reported not to be managed safely and it was rated requires improvement across responsiveness because it was found to not always provide personalised care plans.

This included two care plans for people with diabetes which did not detail the patient’s food and drink preferences.

When assessed on being well-led, the CQC rated the service as inadequate because the inspectors were “concerned” the service did not understand its regulatory responsibilities.

Relating to staff attendance, CQC found “extensive evidence of significantly late, early, short and missed calls”.

On one occasion, it found a 30-minute call - which was scheduled for 6am - started at 8.23am and only lasted nine minutes.

Ms Babatunde put the “unplanned staff absences” down to “positive Covid-19 emergencies” which led to administrative staff (trained in care delivery) stepping into field carer roles.

There was positive feedback about the manager and senior staff, and about people feeling safe and being able to talk to employees.

Ms Babatunde said all “appropriate steps to rectify all issues raised” will now be taken.