A South London care service has been given the worst possible rating after missing over 500 care calls to residents, meaning they were “left waiting” for staff to check on them.

Brisen Company Limited in Blackheath, Greenwich, was rated ‘Inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission in a report published last month.

The company provides short term care to people living in their own homes, with staff making care calls to visit those using the service.

The inspector said in their report that an effective call monitoring system (ECM) had not been put in place by the service.

They said staff were unable to be monitored for their attendance and punctuality to care calls as a result, and that people’s needs were not met in a timely manner.

The report said: “We analysed three months of care calls on the ECM system prior to the inspection.

"We identified there were 512 missed calls.

"Punctuality was poor, with only 60 per cent of calls delivered within 15 minutes of the planned time and 20 per cent of calls were more than 45 minutes late.”

One staff member at the care service reportedly told the inspector that they found it difficult to arrive at care calls on time when they were booked back-to-back.

However, another staff member said they felt they had enough travel time between calls to arrive on time.

The report said: “Late or missed calls meant that people were left waiting for support and meant that people’s dignity could be compromised.

"This was because systems were not effectively used to address late calls or missed calls and consider the potential impact of this on the quality of people’s experiences and their dignity and preferences.”

Despite the criticisms in the report, the inspector said that the people under care and their relatives told them that staff were “kind and caring”.

Steps had also reportedly been taken since the previous inspection to record people’s communication needs.

The service also said they intended to improve the complaints policy before being inspected again.

The inspector said in their report: “During the inspection, the registered manager told us that they would ensure that the provider’s internal complaints policy was followed. We will check this at our next inspection.”

The latest inspection for the care service means it will remain in special measures and be kept under review by the regulator.

It was first put into special measures in October 2022, after a previous inspection also rated the service as ‘Inadequate’.

The report said the company was providing care to 30 people at the time of the latest inspection.

Brisen Company Limited was approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.