A care at home service in Edinburgh must make urgent improvements to the care experienced by older people, the Care Inspectorate has warned.

The Care Inspectorate served a formal Improvement Notice on Highland Care Agency Home Care & Support Services following an inspection which raised serious concerns.

The notice lists four areas which require urgent improvement. These include making proper provision for the health, welfare and safety of people who rely on the service.

The service must also ensure that the health, welfare and safety needs of people are met and in particular ensure care visits are carried out when they are scheduled to be carried out and that people’s health, welfare and safety needs are met during those visits.

The service must also ensure that there are suitably qualified and competent staff working in the care service in such numbers as are appropriate to meet the health, welfare and safety of people.
And they must ensure that all staff employed by the care service have been recruited using national safer recruitment guidelines.

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: “The Improvement Notice we have issued clearly lays out the improvements we must see so that the care experienced by people improves quickly.

“We will inspect this service again soon to check on progress and if we are not satisfied that the matters raised are being addressed urgently we will not hesitate to take further action.

“Everyone in Scotland has the right to safe, compassionate care which meets their needs and respects their rights.

“Anyone with a concern can contact our helpline on 0345 600 9527.”