Archived: Sylk Care

Updated 21 June 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The service was inspected by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

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

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small and people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 26 April 2023 and ended on 05 May 2023. We visited the location’s office on 26 April 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service.

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 23 January 2023 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke to 4 people who used the service, 2 family members and 5 staff members including the registered manager. We reviewed 3 people’s care files, 3 staff recruitment files and a variety of records relating to the management of the service and their policies.

Updated 21 June 2023

About the service

Sylk Care is a domiciliary care service that provides care and support to 25 people living in their own homes.

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

Governance processes were not always effective in the monitoring of training and assessing staff competencies. Not all staff had received the mandatory training required to support people safely. Staff compencies in relation to moving and handling and medication administration were not assessed in line with the providers policies.

Safe recruitment policies were in place however, they needed to be more robust and appropriate references needed to be obtained.

There was limited feedback from people who used the service to allow the provider to assess the effectiveness of the support they provide.

People’s care and support needs were personalised and were reflected in their care plans. These were reviewed in line with the services policy.

Staffing levels were appropriate and people received the support from a consistent staff team.

No concerns were raised by people who used the service and their relatives. People were happy with the support they received and felt safe from abuse.

Accidents and incidents were reported and appropriate actions taken with the oversight from management.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person.

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

This service was registered with us on 10 October 2020 and this is the first inspection.

The last rating for the service at the previous premises was good, published on 4 December 2019.

Why we inspected

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

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. 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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sylk Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified a breach in relation to governance. The provider failed to operate effective systems to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service.

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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.