16 July 2019
During a routine inspection
London Care (South London) is a domiciliary care agency which provides care and support to people in the London Borough of Southwark. At the time of our inspection there were 385 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service:
There had been a significant improvement in the service. The office was now fully staffed and people’s visits were planned in advance.
Punctuality had improved and managers checked that care was delivered as planned. There was a variety of checks in place to make sure that problems were detected and that the service would continue to improve. Managers understood where improvements were still required and were acting on this. People were protected from missed or late calls.
People told us that they were treated with respect and their privacy protected. The service obtained people’s views about their care and acted on them to make improvements. People told us that most of the time they received care from the same care workers but consistency was not as good for some people, especially at weekends.
People had the right support to eat and drink and maintain their health. The service worked with healthcare services and the local authority to address issues of concern.
Care workers received the right training and supervision to do their jobs. Managers carried out spot checks to make sure staff were performing well and made sure care workers were engaged in the service. Care workers told us they could raise concerns and felt listened to.
People were involved in planning their care. People’s needs were assessed and care plans were in place to make sure these were met. People received care in line with their plans and managers checked this was taking place.
People were safeguarded from abuse and managers investigated allegations and complaints effectively.
Since our previous inspection, improvements have been made and medicines were being managed safely. We have made a recommendation about how the service reports and records changes to people's medicines.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection:
At our last inspection in December 2018 we rated the service ‘requires improvement’. Breaches of regulations were found concerning consent to care, safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance.
At this inspection we found the service was meeting these regulations.
Why we inspected:
This was a routine inspection. We arranged this to take place six months after the publication of the last report. This was because we had rated the service ‘inadequate’ in the key question ‘Is the service safe?’ We needed to check that improvements had been made.
Follow up:
The service was rated 'good'. We will continue to monitor information and intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection guidelines. We may inspect sooner if any concerning information is received.