We carried out a review of the data available to us about Thames Homecare Service Ltd - Southwark 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 Thames Homecare Service Ltd - Southwark, you can give feedback on this service.
Thames Homecare Service Ltd – Southwark is a domiciliary care agency. It provides a personal care support service to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 85 people were 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
People and their relatives had experiences of safe care and support. One person said, “I have felt very safe all the time.”
The registered manager had improved the quality of people’s assessments to identify and manage potential risks. Staff were recruited through a robust recruitment process.
People were supported with their medicines to meet their individual needs. Staff were trained in medicines management and kept accurate records.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People gave staff their consent to receive care and support and this was recorded.
The provider updated their systems to monitor the quality of care to ensure it was of a good standard. People praised staff and shared their positive comments about the care and support they received.
There were suitable infection control and prevention methods in place. This was in line with government guidelines around the COVID-19 pandemic. This helped staff to reduce the risks of infection for people they supported.
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 inspection was requires improvement (report published on 19 March). We found breaches of regulation in relation to the management of people's medicines, risk assessments, consent to care, quality assurance and recruitment processes. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This was a planned focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link Thames Homecare Service Ltd - Southwark on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The agency is registered to provide services for younger and older adults with a range of needs including physical disabilities, autism and dementia.
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. At the time of our inspection, 87 people were receiving personal care.
People’s experience of using this service
The service provided both reablement care and conventional home care. Reablement care is given to people who are usually receiving care for the first time, after being unwell or in hospital, and supports them to regain as much of their independence as possible. People’s feedback for both kinds of service were good and people spoke positively of the support their received from staff. One person told us, “They are excellent. I see the same carer every day, and she is always on time. I am very satisfied… I know that they are good.”
People’s medicines were not always safely managed. The assistance people required was not always correctly recorded, and we found several significant mistakes in the recording of support given with medicines which had not been identified when the records were audited.
People's risks were assessed and documented and staff understood how to mitigate them. However, some risk assessments did not contain enough detail to ensure people’s safety, particularly when being assisted with movement or transfers by two members of staff.
People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. The service had failed to ensure that consent was appropriately sought and received according to people’s capacity to consent to receiving care. When relatives advised they had power of attorney for people, this had not been checked.
There were systems of quality assurance and audits in place but they had not identified the issues we identified during the inspection. The registered managers had failed to advise us of every significant incident.
People and their relatives told us that when things went wrong they were comfortable in contacting the office and confident they would be listened to. People who had raised concerns in the past said their concerns had been dealt with appropriately.
People told us they felt safe and they were cared for by regular staff who were well-trained and understood how to protect them from abuse. Staff knew how to report any concerns and how to escalate concerns outside of the agency.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection:
This service was registered with us on 07 January 2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on when the service registered with us.
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to the safe management of medicines, assessing and managing risk, safe recruitment, gaining consent for care and notifying us of allegations of abuse or neglect 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 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.