A Warrington-based care provider has been rated as inadequate and placed into special measures by the Care Quality Commission, to protect people following an inspection.
It follows an inspection by The Care Quality Commission (CQC) of Lifeways Paragon Limited in Warrington, who dispute the findings, in September and October last year.
Lifeways Paragon Limited provides support with personal care to approximately 73 people living in their own homes. This was CQC’s first inspection of the service at its new premises.
CQC carried out this inspection to follow up on concerns about standards of care and safety at the service. During this inspection, there were five breaches regarding safe care and treatment, the need for consent, person centred care, staffing and how the service is managed.
Following the inspection, CQC has rated caring and responsive as requires improvement, and safe, well-led and effective, as inadequate.
CQC has placed the service in special measures which involves close monitoring to ensure people are safe while Lifeways Paragon Limited make improvements. Special measures also provides a structured timeframe so services understand when they need to make improvements by, and what action CQC will take if this doesn’t happen.
Andrew Peck, CQC deputy director of operations, north-west adult social care, said: “When we inspected Lifeways, it was disappointing to see a service that wasn’t managed well, meaning people weren’t receiving the safe and person-centred care they deserved.
“Managers failed to ensure people were protected from risks relating to falls and the prevention and management of pressure sores. People’s nutritional needs weren’t effectively managed either as we saw poorly recorded diet and fluid plans with little evidence of people being supported if they’d experienced weight loss.
“Our inspectors saw people’s basic care needs weren’t always met and staff didn’t complete people’s care plans to include details about their preferences and wishes. For example, if people had to go to hospital, staff there didn’t have the information to hand about their specific needs which could put people at risk as well as cause distress.
“While we found staff were kind and caring, they weren’t supported by leaders to deliver safe care. Managers also didn’t ensure staffing levels were sufficient, meaning people often experienced delays in receiving support or activities were cancelled.
“We have told the service where we expect to see rapid, and continued improvements and will continue to monitor the service closely to keep people safe during this time. We have begun the process of taking regulatory action in order to protect people further.”
Inspectors found:
• Managers didn’t ensure people’s continence and bowel health was supported properly by staff.
• Staff didn’t ensure people received their medications safely or on time.
• Managers didn’t record accidents properly to ensure safeguarding incidents were responded to appropriately.
• Managers didn’t ensure staff received support, supervision and development to carry out their roles effectively.
• People and their relatives didn’t always know who the manager of the service was suggesting communication needed improving.
• The service didn’t make sure that all staff had received appropriate training in dealing with people showing signs of psychological distress.
However:
• Staff supported people to attend medical appointments and stayed with them for company if needed.
• People fed back to CQC that staff were always kind and happy to help them when they could.
• Staff supported people to develop and maintain independence, including everyday skills such as cooking, cleaning and managing tasks, with inspectors observing positive outcomes.
After being approached by Warrington Worldwide Lifeways has responded to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) decision to provisionally rate services delivered under the Lifeways Paragon registration Chorley as Inadequate, a conclusion with which Lifeways does not agree.
Lifeways Paragon has previously been rated ‘Good’ overall by the CQC, with ‘Outstanding’ ratings previously achieved in the area of ‘Effective’ care. Lifeways believes the provisional outcome from the most recent inspection in September/October 2025, does not accurately reflect either the lived experience of people supported, the feedback received from families or the body of evidence recorded by inspectors during the inspection.
Lifeways has formally engaged with the CQC’s factual accuracy process, submitting detailed representation of inaccuracies and significant omissions within the draft findings and related communications. Lifeways has formally appealed the outcome and requested a re inspection by senior CQC officials.
A spokesperson for Lifeways, said: “Lifeways takes every opportunity to learn very seriously but, on this occasion, we are disappointed and do not believe this provisional rating reflects the reality of the care, support and outcomes being delivered by our Lifeways Paragon services. The inspection evidence itself contains extensive examples of ‘good’ and, in some cases, ‘outstanding’ practice which are not reflected in the headline conclusions.”
In addition to ongoing quality improvement work undertaken collaboratively with local authorities, Lifeways has commissioned Fulcrum, an independent healthcare organisation that utilises experienced existing/ former regulators to carry out an external review of Paragon services. This step has been taken to provide additional reassurance while matters with the CQC are being resolved.
