Background to this inspection
Updated
2 April 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
This inspection was carried out 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.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
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
We gave a short period notice of the inspection because 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
Before the inspection we looked at all the information we had collected about the service including previous inspection reports and notifications the registered manager had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law. 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.
During the inspection
We spoke with nine people who used the service and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We sought feedback from five professionals and received feedback from two professionals. We received feedback from 17 members of staff. We also spoke with the registered manager.
We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records. We looked at six staff recruitment files. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, care plan review documents, staff meeting minutes and the registered manager’s weekly handover records.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at medicines administration records (MARs) for three people who used the service.
Updated
2 April 2021
About the service
County Carers Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service supports older people, people living with dementia and people with a physical disability. At the time of our inspection the service was providing personal care to 54 people.
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.
People’s experience of this service and what we found
Staff understood their responsibilities to protect people from harm and knew how to raise safeguarding concerns. People’s care plans contained detailed risk assessments with specific instructions for staff about how to safeguard people from identified risks.
The registered manager had completed the necessary safe recruitment checks to ensure they employed suitable staff.
There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and provide safe care. People were supported to take their medicines by suitably trained staff. People were protected from the risk of getting an infection by trained staff.
The registered manager and senior staff team were committed to providing individualised, safe care. They maintained a detailed oversight of quality and safety in the service through completing a series of effective checks and audits.
People felt staff and the management team were competent and approachable. They told us they felt comfortable raising any queries or concerns.
Staff reviewed their practice to make improvements and worked effectively with health and social care professionals.
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 08 November 2019) and there were two breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced, comprehensive inspection of this service on 08 November 2019. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve to comply with the regulations ‘good governance’, and ‘fit and proper persons employed’.
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 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 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 County Carers Limited 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.