Date of assessment: 26 November to 18 December 2025. Reline Care is a domiciliary care service providing personal care support to approximately 80 people living in their own homes. We have undertaken a comprehensive assessment which means we have reviewed 33 quality statements. At our last assessment, we rated this service good. Following this assessment, we have rated this service requires improvement with a breach of the legal regulations in relation to good governance. The provider had not embedded an effective call monitoring system to ensure people received their care at the agreed times. Management audits and checks had failed to address staff lateness. This meant people did not always receive their care when they wanted it. The provider did not demonstrate a culture of continuous learning and improvements. Staff punctuality and ? was identified as a concern at our last inspection. At this assessment, we found the provider had not made the necessary improvements. People’s needs were assessed. However, the timing of their care was not always provided in line with their assessed needs and preferences. Staff had access to up to date information about people’s care needs. People had a range of risk assessments in place detailing the support they needed to keep them safe. Staff understood how to keep people safe and were clear about who they could talk to if they had any concerns. Staff told us they received training which equipped them with the skills they needed to do their jobs. People were involved in decision making and people’s capacity to make decisions was assessed and documented. Health professionals told us they felt people were safe. They told us staff were vigilant in noticing people’s changing needs. One health professional told us, “The compassionate and attentive approach the staff take has clearly made a positive impact in the overall quality of the person’s life. They have taken time to get to know the person and have been able to keep good records about all aspects of the person’s health.”
PDF cached but not yet analysed by Claude; set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and re-run npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-777256040.
Barking Enterprise Centre (Reline Care Ltd) improved from Inadequate to Requires Improvement overall following significant progress in safeguarding, medicines, recruitment and care planning since its May 2017 inspection. However, ongoing breaches of Regulations 17 and 18 were found due to persistent missed and late visits, ineffective deployment of double-handed care staff, a failing call monitoring system, and inadequate complaints accessibility.
Concerns (6)
criticalMissed or late visits: “Yesterday, I should have had some visits. I only had one. I have phoned the agency this morning to see what the problem was.”
criticalStaffing levels: “one person who required two people to assist them with moving and transferring using a hoist, did not receive this support on more than one occasion because care staff were not arriving together.”
criticalGovernance: “missed visits to people, late visits or failures by 'double up' staff to attend visits at the same time, were not picked up by the management team.”
moderateComplaints handling: “No, I don't know how to complain and I haven't received any information.”
moderateStaff training: “one staff member told us they had received three days of training in the office...A second member of staff told us they had received one day induction training in the office.”
minorCommunication with families: “No the agency don't contact me if they are making changes or if the carers are sick or running late.”
Strengths
· Improvements made to safeguarding systems since previous inadequate inspection; staff demonstrated clear awareness of safeguarding procedures and all had completed safeguarding training.
· Medicine administration records updated and accurate; MAR charts contained correct medicine names, dosages, timings and instructions.
· Safe recruitment procedures implemented with DBS checks, references and right-to-work verification.
· Care plans rewritten to be person-centred, reflecting individual preferences, life history and daily routines.
· Staff received regular monthly supervision and annual appraisals were scheduled.
Quality-Statement breakdown (18)
safe: Missed and late visitsRequires improvement
safe: SafeguardingGood
safe: Risk assessmentGood
safe: Medicines managementGood
safe: RecruitmentGood
safe: Staffing deploymentRequires improvement
effective: Staff training and inductionRequires improvement
effective: Supervision and appraisalGood
effective: Mental Capacity Act complianceGood
effective: Nutrition and hydrationGood
caring: Dignity and respectGood
caring: Involvement in care planningGood
caring: Consistency of care staffGood
responsive: Person-centred care planningGood
responsive: Complaints handling and accessibilityRequires improvement
Reline Care Ltd (Barking Enterprise Centre) was rated Inadequate overall following a December 2016 inspection, with breaches of eight regulations covering safeguarding, medicines management, staffing, training, consent, person-centred care, record keeping and governance. The service was placed in special measures, with warning notices issued for multiple regulatory failures and no effective system for learning lessons across the service as a whole.
Concerns (14)
criticalSafeguarding: “Instances of neglect and abuse were not raised as safeguarding issues and staff did not identify neglect as a type of abuse.”
criticalMedication management: “Medicines were not managed or recorded in a safe way. Records were unclear and staff did not have sufficient information to ensure they supported people to take their medicines as prescribed.”
criticalMissed or late visits: “People told us there were not enough staff and this meant they missed care visits or received them late.”
criticalStaffing levels: “Three of the five care workers we spoke with also told us they did not think there were enough staff. One care worker said, 'No, there's not enough staff.'”
criticalStaff training: “Staff covered 15 units of the care certificate on one day... Five care staff were unable to explain the Mental Capacity Act (2005) or different types of abuse when asked by the inspector.”
criticalCare planning: “Care plans were task focussed and did not contain information about people's preferences, or how their religious and cultural background or sexuality affected their preferences.”
criticalConsent / capacity: “Two care plans stated people lacked capacity; signed by relatives with no record to demonstrate these relatives had legal authority to make decisions on the person's behalf.”
criticalGovernance: “Audits were completed, but they were not effective as they had not identified issues with the quality of records and plans found during the inspection.”
criticalRecord keeping: “One person's record showed medicines had been recorded as administered on only four occasions during October 2016.”
criticalPerson-centred care: “Records of care showed that people were not consistently receiving care in line with their needs and preferences.”
moderateIncident learning: “Although individual concerns had been addressed lessons learnt had not been applied to the whole service.”
moderateCultural competency: “In all nine of the care plans viewed, the section relating to culture was marked 'not applicable' or left blank.”
moderateStaff competency: “Shadowing records were undated so it was not clear if care workers had completed all the tasks in one session, or over a period of time.”
moderateLeadership: “A staff member told us, 'I don't feel comfortable to raise issues with the registered manager. Things just get brushed under the carpet.'”
Strengths
· The service completed regular monitoring and collected feedback from people about their views on the service.
· The service had a robust complaints policy and records showed that complaints were responded to in line with the policy.
· Records showed staff received supervision, spot checks on their performance and appraisals in line with the provider's policy.
· Where concerns were raised about care worker performance the provider took appropriate action including refresher training and increased monitoring.
· Care plans contained brief personal histories with information about people's pasts and significant relationships.
Barking Enterprise Centre improved from Requires Improvement to Good overall, demonstrating significant progress since the previous inspection, particularly in eliminating missed visits and strengthening governance systems. The sole remaining weakness was inconsistent staff timekeeping, with most people reporting late arrivals, though no missed visits were recorded.
Concerns (1)
moderateMissed or late visits: “Most people told us staff were late on most occasions. One person said, "They turn up when they feel like it; they either come too early or late."”
Strengths
· No missed visits at this inspection; significant improvement since previous inspection where a warning notice was issued for missed visits
· Robust staff recruitment processes including necessary checks and induction programmes
· Staff received regular training, supervision and appraisals; staff felt well supported by management
· Medicines managed well with correct administration records and trained staff
· Adult safeguarding protocols in place with staff knowledgeable about procedures