About the service Homecare Service Provider is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people in their own homes. 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 there were 12 people receiving personal care support.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and their relatives were satisfied with the care they received. They felt safe in the presence of care workers and told us they were competent in carrying out their duties.
The provider had made some improvements in relation to some areas of concern we found last time including medicines management, staff training and regulatory requirements. However, not enough improvement had been made in relation to safer staff recruitment checks and quality assurance checks.
Although the provider had implemented a new call monitoring system, we received mixed feedback from people regarding call visit times and of poor communication from the office when care workers were running late. We discussed this staffing issue with the managers at the time of our inspection who were aware this system needed further improvement.
People received personal care and support from staff who knew how to manage risks and keep them safe. The provider followed good infection prevention and control guidance and staff had access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to keep them safe. People received their prescribed medicines as and when they should.
The provider ensured care workers received appropriate training and support to meet people’s needs.
Improvements had been made to the care plans in place which meant people’s needs were captured more accurately.
Feedback was sought from people using the service, their relatives and staff. The provider had updated their policies to reflect current guidance and the registered manager was aware of the legal requirement to submit statutory notifications to the CQC.
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 3 March 2020) and there was a breach of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment, fit and proper persons employed, staffing, notifications 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 regulation in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing and notifications. However, we found the provider to be in continued breach in relation to fit and proper persons employed and governance.
The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to the previous rating and the risk rating of the service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe, Effective, Responsive and Well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has remained Requires Improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
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.
Follow up
We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.