Hafod Care in the Community

Updated 6 January 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 carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 three people who used the service and three relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of care staff including the provider and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at quality assurance records, training plans and care records. We spoke with one professional who was in contact with the service.

Updated 6 January 2021

About the service

Hafod Care in the Community is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people with a variety of needs including dementia, physical disability and sensory impairment. People are supported in their own homes, at the time of this inspection, 15 people were receiving personal care from the service.

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

At our last inspection the registered manager had failed to ensure staff rota planning was effective in supporting staff to carry out their duties, staff training was not planned effectively to support staff and auditing systems in place did not provide oversight of the service. At this inspection we found improvements had been made, but more worked needed to be done.

Safeguarding concerns, accidents and incidents were reported and acted upon. Audits were in place to identify any trends or lessons to be learnt. Work was underway to improve the information documented in peoples care records, but this had not been consistently completed and information was still missing in some plans. Staff were aware of the risks to the people they cared for and people felt safe supported by the same group of staff.

People felt safe when staff attended to them and confirmed staff wore PPE (personal protective equipment) when entering their home and supporting them.

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.

Staff worked in partnership with external healthcare professionals to ensure people’s healthcare needs were met.

People were happy with the service they received. People did not experience any missed calls and were supported by a consistent group of staff who knew them well. People’s views of the service were sought.

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 6 May 2020) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. 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 undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe, effective and well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has remained as 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 Hafod Care in the Community 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.