A company providing home care to more than 300 people in Widnes and Runcorn has been told it needs to improve for the second time in a year.

Inspectors found Premier Care Halton, which delivers home care for Halton Council, did not always administer drugs safely or assess people’s mental capacity to make decisions about their care.

In one case, the inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found a person’s consent forms had been “signed by an unknown person” despite there being no evidence showing they did not have the capacity to make a decision about their care themselves.

However, the CQC inspectors also described the service as “caring” and said staff treated people “with dignity and respect” and involved them in planning their care.

One person receiving care from the service told inspectors: “The care workers are more like friends. They know what I like. They are very good with me.”

The inspection, carried out in February, was Premier Care Halton’s second since it was set up in 2018.

Both inspections said the service “requires improvement”, but for different reasons.

In 2019, inspectors found the service was not properly monitoring its sub-contractor but this year concerns focused on safety issues.

The inspection report said: “People’s medicines records were insufficient and it was not always possible to identify what medicine had been administered to people.  “For example, one person was prescribed a variable dose of warfarin. The medication administration records (MARs) did not record what dose had been administered.”

Premier Care Halton is Halton Council’s only home care provider and looks after 345 people in the borough.

It also sub-contracts care for 140 people to a different company.