Aston Home Care Limited

Updated 3 May 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

The inspection was conducted by 3 inspectors 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.

Service and service type

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

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 not a registered manager in post. A new manager had been in post since the service was taken over by a new management team in November 2022 and had applied to register. We are currently assessing this application.

Notice of inspection

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 manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 3 April 2023 and ended on 11th April. We visited the location’s office/service on 3 and 6 April.

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 The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 6 people who used the service and 7 relatives. We also spoke to 6 care staff, the manager, and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We checked the care people received matched the information in their records. We looked records relating to medication administration, staffing files and quality assurance processes carried out within service.

Updated 3 May 2023

About the service

Aston Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living 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. The service was supporting 34 people at the time of our inspection of which 23 were supported with personal care.

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

Right Support

Overall people told us they were satisfied with the care and support they received. However, some people did not always receive their care calls on time, were not always told about delays or changes to the care staff expected such as female staff members. The manager had already identified this as a concern and was actively recruiting for more staff at the time of the inspection.

People told us they felt safe and received the support they needed by staff who were recruited safely. People had support to manage their health and were supported to take their medicines safely.

Staff had received training in how to support people safely and how to report any concerns. However, some people told us they felt new and agency staff needed further training in how to support people living with dementia.

Right Care

Care plans and risk assessments were in place to support people to live their lives whilst keeping the risk of harm to a minimum.

People were supported to eat and drink in line with dietary preferences, and the provider worked with other professionals to ensure people's health needs were met.

Right Culture

Staff were aware of people's needs and received spot checks and supervision to support them in their role.

Complaints were managed and responded to effectively. When things went wrong the provider ensured lessons were learned and actions taken to drive improvements.

Quality assurance systems were not fully embedded; however checks were in place to monitor daily tasks, medication administration and the management team were already in the process of updating care records.

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 at the previous premises was requires improvement (published 22.12.21) and there was a breach 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 they 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.

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 remained as requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a

separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Follow up

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