About the service Flamelily Independent Living is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. When we inspected they were providing the regulated activity, personal care, to 18 people.
Not everyone who uses the service may receive 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
The provider did not have effective recruitment and selection procedures to ensure all relevant information about staff was confirmed before they were employed. The provider’s auditing systems were not always effective in identifying risks or in driving improvements.
There was positive feedback from people and their families about the care they received. Feedback from community health and social care professionals was mostly positive, while identifying areas for further development.
People said they felt safe and would contact the office if they had any concerns. The provider had suitable safeguarding policies and procedures that were available to staff and people using the service. Staff received training in safeguarding adults.
People told us, and records we saw confirmed their needs were assessed before the service commenced supporting them. This assessment was used to develop an individual care plan. Staff received an induction, training and supervision.
People said they felt the service supported them well to maintain their health and provided consistent care. Records showed care staff, administrative and management staff contacted and liaised with external professionals if issues were raised in relation to people’s health.
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 in the service supported this practice.
People felt well supported and spoke positively about the care workers and managers. They told us care was provided by a consistent team of staff. People felt able to talk to the managers and staff. They were aware of their care plan and confirmed their involvement in the review and development of it. Care workers promoted and respected people’s privacy, dignity and independence.
People told us the service was responsive to their needs. Care workers usually came on time, stayed for the allocated time and carried out all the agreed tasks. The provider had introduced a new electronic system that enabled them to monitor the time and duration of care visits.
The provider carried out service user and staff satisfaction surveys and we saw the majority of responses were positive. The registered manager visited people using the service, which provided an opportunity to discuss their care in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The service worked in partnership with other agencies.
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 20 December 2018).
The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
We have identified two breaches in relation to staff recruitment practices and governance at this inspection. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.