Empowerment Care Ltd

Updated 15 March 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 carried out by 2 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 a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small, and people are often out, and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 24 January 2023 and ended on 3rd February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 24 January 2023 and 31 January 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information about the service from on-going monitoring such as information we had received. We sought feedback from the local authority, Healthwatch and other professionals who work with the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. 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 our inspection we spoke with 4 people who used the service and 1 relative. We also spoke with the registered manager and 5 care staff. We looked at the care records for 5 people. We checked the care people received matched the information in their records. We looked at records relating to the management of the service, including audits carried out within service. We also looked at Medicines records

Updated 15 March 2023

About the service

Empowerment Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The service provided support to older people, people with dementia or mental health issues and those who may have physical or sensory disabilities. There were also supporting people who had a learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder. There were 19 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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

Right Support

People’s care plans and risk assessments did not always identify how to support them with their individual needs. Staff had not always received training in these key areas to ensure they could support people in a safe way. People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. The staff did not always support people in their best interests.

Right Care

Some improvements were needed to people’s care plans, although some were person centred, these were not always updated in a timely way and not all health risks were assessed and planned for. The provider had failed to ensure the management team were aware of and following best practice guidance. No staff had received learning disability training, which is now a requirement for all services who support people with a learning disability.

Right Culture.

The provider was not always identifying concerns external professionals had, and their recommendations had been not always acted on. This meant lessons were not always learnt from incidents which left people at risk. The Registered Manager was responsive to our feedback and told us they would put measures in place to reduce risks that had been identified during the inspection. People, relatives and staff were positive about the Registered Manager. Staff knew their people well and staff left supported in their role and felt able to raise concerns if 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 22 June 2022).

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 the provider remained in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing and safeguarding. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. 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 requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well led sections of this report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Empowerment Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to managing people’s risks, staffing and governance and oversight at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.