Home Care Service Provider

Updated 14 October 2022

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was conducted by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The Expert by Experience made calls to people or their relatives.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating.

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 service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 29 September 2022 and finished on 30 September 2022. We visited the office location on 29 September 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it had registered with us.

The provider completed a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people and six relatives of people who used the service. We spoke with the registered manager, care co-ordinator and three care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people's care records, three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including complaints, incident forms, policies and procedures were reviewed.

We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection. This included records relating to governance including policies and procedures.

Updated 14 October 2022

About the service

Home Care Service Provider is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes, some with a diagnosis of dementia.

At the time of the inspection, there were 15 people using the service who were receiving help with personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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.

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

The provider operated safe recruitment procedures which helped to ensure people received care from staff that had been suitability assessed before they were employed. People and their relatives told us they felt safe in the presence of care workers and said they made their care visits on time. People were kept informed if care workers were running late. The provider took steps to assess and manage risks to people which helped to keep them safe from harm. People received appropriate support with regards to their medicines.

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

The registered manager had taken feedback from the previous inspection on board to improve the quality of the service. Feedback from people was that the service was well-led and communication with the office staff was good. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of service including audits of medicines records, regular reviews, telephone monitoring and unannounced spot checks. Feedback was sought from people and acted upon.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 19/04/2021) and there were breaches of regulation in relation to fit and proper persons employed and good governance. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection enough improvement had been made and the provider was not in breach of regulations.

At our last inspection we recommended that the provider review its processes around respite/break times for live-in care workers in line with good practice. At this inspection we found the provider had acted on these recommendations and had made improvements.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to look at improvements against the breaches found at the previous inspection. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Home Care Service Provider on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.