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Home Care & Support Limited

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

First Floor Suite, St Luke's Hall, Raglan Road, Bromley, BR2 9NN (020) 4541 7116

Provided and run by:
Home Care & Support Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile
Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 19 April 2023

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector. Two Experts by Experience made calls to people using the service or their relatives. 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

This was a remote inspection we gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be available to support the inspection. The inspection activity started on 03 February 2023 and ended on 7 March 2023.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we had received about the service. We asked for feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke to the registered manager, three staff members, seven people who used the service and twelve relatives. We reviewed a range of records including eight people’s care and risk management records. We reviewed five staff recruitment records. We also reviewed records used in managing the service for example, policies and procedures, monitoring records and audits.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 19 April 2023

About the service

Home Care and Support Limited is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care support service to people with a learning or physical disability, a mental health condition, sensory impairment, dementia, older people and younger adults living in their own homes and in supported living services.

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. On the day of the inspection there were 39 people using the service.

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

Risk assessments and risk management plans were not always in place. Medicines were not always safely managed. Appropriate recruitment checks were not carried out before staff joined the service. Staff were not effectively deployed to meet people’s needs in a timely manner. People and their relatives' views about the service were sought but there were no records to show any action taken by the provider to drive improvements. Regular audits to identify shortfalls were not carried out.

People told us they felt safe using the service. There were systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuse. People were protected from the risk of infection. The provider worked with other healthcare professionals when required.

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 15 April 2022). The service remains rated requires improvement.

Why we inspected

We carried out this inspection to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to the assessment and management of risks, management of medicines, deployment of staff, safe recruitment of staff and governance at this inspection.

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 least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.