The Lowedges

Date of assessment: 17 to 19 March 2026. The Lowedges is a Domiciliary Care Agency, providing support and personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our assessment 1 person was receiving support from the service. We carried out this assessment to give the provider a rating. This was a focused inspection covering the safe and well-led domains. The provider was in breach of regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, staff recruitment and good governance. The service is rated inadequate, and the service has been placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.There was a lack of robust care plans and risk assessments in place. Risks posed to people were not mitigated. We could not be assured people received support for their allocated times due to a lack of daily care records. Staff were not appropriately recruited, trained and did not receive adequate support and appraisals. Medicines were not managed safely. We could not be assured people were safeguarded from the risk of abuse due to a lack of staff training, and we were unable to gain feedback from staff during our assessment. Governance systems were not in place, including audits and opportunities to gain feedback from people and staff to improve the service. There was a lack of visions and values in place. The provider failed to recognise concerns we found in relation to staff recruitment and training, managing medicines, care plans, risk assessments and daily records