28 September 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Liberty Private Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people at home. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This means help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. There were 12 people using the service at the time of the inspection receiving a regulated activity of personal care.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The computer system designed to manage the safe administration of medicine was not robust and did not always show medicines were being administered in accordance with the prescriber's instructions. We have made a recommendation to the provider about the safe management of medicines.
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 did not always support this practice. We have made a recommendation about keeping records in line with the mental capacity act.
We found the service had dealt with accidents and incidents effectively to ensure people remained safe from harm however, information had not always been shared appropriately with the local safeguarding team. We have made a recommendation about informing the local safeguarding team of incidents to ensure external scrutiny of the service.
Whilst the service did not currently support any autistic person or person with a learning disability, staff had not completed training in learning disability and autism. We have made a recommendation about providing this training in line with legal requirements.
Suitable numbers of staff supported people however, we were told staff were often late to calls because they did not have enough time to travel in between clients.
People told us the staff were kind and caring and they felt safe. One person said, “I do feel very safe with [staff] and look forward to their arrival.” Risks to people’s health, safety and wellbeing had been assessed to ensure people were safe. Staff had plentiful access to personal protective equipment (PPE), and systems were in place to protect people from the spread of infections.
People’s care needs were assessed before they started using the service to ensure their needs could be met. Staff had completed mandatory training and were able to access additional training to ensure the needs of the people using the service were met.
The service worked well with other organisations and healthcare professionals. We received positive feedback from people who felt the service had identified concerns and sought medical attention before they became a problem.
People felt the service was well run by the provider who knew people well. The provider was open and honest throughout the inspection and had a lesson learned process in place. The provider was keen to celebrate good care and learn lessons when areas of improvements were identified.
At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.
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 good (published 25 February 2020).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing levels, Mental Capacity Act, staff training and safeguarding. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report.
Recommendations
We have made some recommendations please see our summary, safe and effective section of this report.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.