We carried out a review of the data available to us about Woodhall Care Services Ltd on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Woodhall Care Services Ltd, you can give feedback on this service.
Woodhall care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people in their own homes in the community. At the time of our inspection there were 190 people using the service.
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 using this service and what we found
People and relatives told us the care received was safe. The systems in place for risk monitoring, managing safeguarding concerns, incidents and accidents were effective and had been updated following recent feedback. One person told us “I feel safe because I know them ‘cos they are regular.” Staff deployment met people's needs and people's medicines were managed safely.
At the time of inspection, the provider was implementing a new electronic care record system and care plans, risk assessments and daily notes recording were being reviewed and updated as part of this process.
The service was well led. The registered manager and nominated individual responded to feedback, ensuring lessons learnt were being used to improve the service. The culture within the service demonstrated inclusion of peoples’ diverse backgrounds.
There were systems in place to monitor that people received safe and good quality care. People, their relatives and staff had good experiences of the service and could contribute to further improvement within the service.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 25 September 2019).
A targeted inspection (published 02 October 2020), to check whether the provider had made improvement in relation to Regulation 17 (good Governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulation 2014, found the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
The overall rating for the service had not changed following this targeted inspection and remained requires improvement. Targeted inspections do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to safe delivery and management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
We found no evidence during this inspection people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.
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 changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Woodhall Care Services Limited on our 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.
Woodhall Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled people. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care to 120 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 using this service and what we found
People were happy with the support they received with their medication. One person told us, “The staff are really good and friendly.” Another said, “I believe the staff to be nice and caring people. The staff care for me and offer to help me out.” People told us the staff wore appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when administering their medication and caring for them.
Medicines were managed safely. Significant improvements had been made to medicine management. This was supported by effective oversight and auditing systems which identified and addressed issues in a timely manner. There was clear information about when and how to administer medicines and creams.
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 25 September 2019) and there was a breach of regulation 17 (Good Governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
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.
This was a targeted inspection and therefore the rating has not changed.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 28 August 2019. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve medication management and governance.
We undertook this targeted 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 overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.
CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.
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.
Woodhall Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled people. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care to 95 people.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks relating to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The service provided a range of care packages. Most people who used the service were very happy with the care and support provided by Woodhall Care Services. People and relatives told us the service was caring and safe. One person told us, “I feel safe because they are trustworthy and respectful in every way.”
Medicines were not always managed in a safe way. We saw improvements had been made to systems, but we identified inconsistencies in record keeping. Information about when and how to administer medicines and creams was not always clear.
The registered manager had introduced a range of quality checks and audits. However, these were not effective in all areas. For example, the issues we identified with medicines had not been identified.
People’s care needs were assessed, and they received good quality person centred care from staff who knew them well. Staff were caring and compassionate. Call times were reliable, and people told us they were supported consistently.
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 supported this process.
People’s health and dietary needs were met and there were established links with health professionals and other agencies. Staff were knowledgeable about people and the topics we asked them about. They received a range of training, supervision and appraisal.
The registered manager provided the service with leadership and promoted a positive team culture. They were passionate about continuing to improve the quality of the service.
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 11 September 2018) 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 the provider was still in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.
We have found evidence the provider needs to make improvements
Enforcement
We have identified a breach in relation to good governance.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at last good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per out re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
This inspection of Woodhall Care Services Ltd took place between 16 July and 2 August 2018 and was announced. We gave the provider 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit to ensure someone would be in the office. This was the first inspection of the service since the service moved to a new location in August 2017.
Woodhall Care Services Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to both older people, adults, young people, people with learning and profound disabilities and people at the end of their life. Not everyone using Woodhall Care Services Ltd receives regulated activity. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection, 180 people were receiving personal care from the service.
A registered manager was in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People told us they felt safe. Staff knew how to recognise and report any concerns about people's safety and welfare. However, risks to people’s health and safety were not always assessed to help protect people from harm.
We found medicines were not always managed in a safe way. In particular, recording of actual medicines administered and topical medication.
People were provided with care and support by staff who were trained. Staff were skilled and competent to meet the needs of people. Staff told us they had received induction and training relevant to their roles. Staff demonstrated a sound awareness of infection control procedures.
There were enough staff deployed to ensure people received care. Safe recruitment procedures were followed to help ensure staff were of suitable character to work with vulnerable people.
Care records required further detail so staff knew what support to offer people. Care records did not always included information about people’s preferences, likes and dislikes.
The service was compliant with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 consent was sought before care and support was offered.
People said staff were kind and caring and treated them well. We saw positive relationships had developed between people and staff. People mostly received care from the same staff members. This allowed people and staff to become familiar with one another and it supported the staff to provide consistent care to people.
The service worked in partnership with other agencies including health professionals to help ensure people’s needs were met. People’s healthcare needs were assessed and plans of care put in place.
A complaints procedure was in place, which enabled people to raise any concerns or complaints about the care or support they received. However, more work was required around documenting actions taken and whether people were happy with outcomes.
Staff told us they felt supported in their roles and their views were listened to through supervision and team meetings.
People using the service, relatives and staff we spoke with were positive about the management team. Staff said the registered manager was approachable and supportive.
We found the providers quality monitoring systems were not always working as well as they should be. Some of the concerns we found at our inspection should have been identified through a robust system of checks.
We found two breaches of regulations in relation to medicines, safe care and treatment and good governance. We are considering the appropriate regulatory response to our findings.