Care U Care Ltd

Updated 24 June 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Care U Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the provider a few days’ notice because we were aware they were a small service and we needed to ensure they would be available to assist us with the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 April 2023 and ended on 12 May 2023. We requested a range of documents related to people’s care that was sent to us by the registered manager between 17 April and 15 May 2023. We visited the office location on 28 April 2023 to see the registered manager and to review further records related to the service. We made calls to people who used the service, their relatives and care staff between 24 April and 12 May 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since their registration. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed information from a direct monitoring activity (DMA) that was carried out with the provider on 10 October 2022 to get an update on the service. This information helps support our inspections. We also contacted the local authority commissioning team. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed records related to 8 people’s care and support. This included people’s care plans, risk assessments and 7 staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We were only able to review a small sample of daily logs for 1 person, as a lot of information requested was not made available.

We spoke with 5 staff members. This included the registered manager and 4 care workers.

We made calls to 12 people and managed to speak with 3 people and 6 relatives as not everyone was able to fully communicate with us over the telephone. We also received feedback from 2 health and social care professionals who had experience of working with the service.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. This related to correspondence with a range of health and social care professionals to show how any concerns were shared with the local authority.

We provided formal feedback to the registered manager via email on 12 May 2023.

Updated 24 June 2023

About the service

Care U Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to younger disabled adults, older people, including people living with mental health issues.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of the inspection the provider was supporting 22 people, with 15 of them receiving personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Although the issues we found did not directly impact the level of care and support people received, significant improvements were needed with the level of detail and information of the care records in place.

Important information and guidance for care staff to follow related to people’s care and support was not always recorded or in place.

Safer recruitment practices were not always followed. The providers monitoring processes were not always effective as they had not picked up all the issues we found during this inspection. Key records related to people’s care and support were not available at the time of the inspection.

People and their relatives were happy with how their care and support was being delivered and told us staff knew how to keep them safe and had a good understanding of their needs. One relative said, “There are no issues so far and all has gone well. They seem to be very adaptive and willing to listen. We are very happy with the service.”

Staff completed shadowing observations when they were introduced to people to help them understand how they liked to be cared for. Staff told us this was helpful and beneficial to their role.

People were supported by staff who felt valued and supported in their role. Staff told us the registered manager was understanding and helped carry out care visits when cover was needed.

People, their relatives and health and social care professionals gave positive feedback about times when they felt staff, including the registered manager, went above and beyond their duties to ensure people’s needs were met.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The service was registered with us on 11 November 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified 4 breaches in relation to person centred care, safe care and treatment, recruitment practices and good governance.

We have made 2 recommendations about ensuring capacity assessments are completed in line with best practice and the recording of concerns and complaints.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.