Andrea Healthcare Limited

Andrea Healthcare Limited is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing. Andrea Healthcare Limited primarily supports older people and people who are judged to be at the end of their life. At the time of inspection there were eight people using the service, of which all were receiving the regulated activity of ‘personal care’.

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

Improvements were required to ensure the proper and safe use of medicines. Staff recruitment practices and procedures were not as robust as they should be, we have made a recommendation about this within the report. The service understood staff require training, but improvements are required to ensure staff are appropriately trained, are skilled and competent to undertake their role. Staff did not routinely receive formal supervision. The provider’s governance arrangements had failed to identify the above shortfalls.

People and those acting on their behalf told us they or their family member was safe, and they had no concerns about their safety. Suitable arrangements were in place to protect people from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff understood how to raise concerns and knew what to do to safeguard people. Risks for people were identified and recorded in relation to their care and support needs. People confirmed they had not experienced any occasions whereby they had not received support from the domiciliary care service, for example, missed calls.

Staff made sure people were involved in making decisions about their care and support. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported did not support this practice. People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain their health and wellbeing. The service monitored people’s health, care and support needs to promote positive outcomes and to ensure people were supported at the end of their life.

People told us they were treated with care and kindness. Overall people were very happy with the domiciliary care service provided. People confirmed care and support was provided by regular staff and they were always treated with respect and dignity.

People’s care and support needs were identified and recorded. Staff confirmed they had all of the information required to meet people’s needs. People and those acting on their behalf were confident that if they complained, this would be taken seriously and acted on.

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 in November 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to medicines management, staff training and governance arrangements 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 from 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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.