UKG Care Havant

Updated 19 August 2021

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

The inspection was conducted by two inspectors and two Experts by Experience [ExE]. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

There was no registered manager at the service at the time of the inspection. The last registered manager left the service in May 2021. There was a new manager who had made an application to the Care Quality Commission and was waiting for CQC to assess their suitability. The provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service approximately 18 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 21 July 2021 and ended on 02 August 2021. We visited the office location on 21 July 2021 and spoke with people, their relatives and external professionals on the telephone, between 23 July 2021 and 02 August 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection, including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. The provider was not asked to complete 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 all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 11 people who used the service and 11 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 10 members of staff including one of the providers who was also the nominated individual, the manager, office staff and care staff. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included nine people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 19 August 2021

About the service

UKG Care Havant is a domiciliary care agency which provides support and personal care to people living in their own home. 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 our inspection 118 people were receiving a regulated activity from UKG Care Havant.

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

Risk assessments were completed for people which identified any risks but required further detail to ensure staff had the information they needed to mitigate risks

People told us they received safe care and treatment. Care staff understood the importance of safeguarding people, and they knew how to report any signs of abuse, or any accidents and incidents.

Staff had completed training in the safe administration of medicines and had their competency re-assessed annually. People were encouraged to maintain their independence to self-administer their own medicines, where possible. People who required support to administer medicines, were happy with how they were supported.

Staff received an induction into their role and had received appropriate training that equipped them to support people. Safe recruitment procedures were in place to help ensure only suitable staff were employed.

Staff felt they were supported by the management team. Although had felt stretched over the last year, with the need for more staff, they told us they felt things were improving.

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.

People care needs had been assessed and they were involved in decisions about how they wanted to be supported. Care records were written in a sensitive and person-centred way.

The management team had processes for monitoring visits and endeavoured to ensure that office staff contacted people when care staff were held up or were running late for visits.

People were supported to maintain good health and well-being, and staff supported people to access their GP when needed.

Systems and processes were in place to monitor the service and identify and drive improvement. The manager had developed an action plan to ensure they were able to make any improvements needed.

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 25 December 2019). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to poor leadership, care plans, medicines, staff allocation and complaints. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe, effective and well led sections of this full report.

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 changed from requires improvement to good. 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 UKG Care Havant on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information, we may inspect sooner