Background to this inspection
Updated
15 February 2022
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. 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
Suite 4, Jason house is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
At the time of the inspection, the service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. Alongside the provider, a registered manager is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced 24 hours before the inspection site visit. Inspection activity started on 23 November 2021 and ended on 16 December 2021. We visited the office location on 23 November 2021.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We reviewed information we had received about the service, such as details about incidents the provider must notify CQC about, for example incidents of abuse. We reviewed all other information sent to us from stakeholders such as the local authority and members of the public. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with five people and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the operations manager, manager, three staff members and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We looked at various care and medicine records. We looked at three staff files regarding recruitment. We also looked at quality monitoring records relating to the management of the service, such as audits and quality assurance reports.
Updated
15 February 2022
About the service
EcoClean is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to 32 people at the time of the inspection. Of these, 20 received regulated activity.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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 and what we found
Although we found there had been improvements in the service, shortfalls remained in the governance of the service. Quality assurance checks had not been effective enough to identify and address concerns, to drive all the necessary improvements forward in a timely way.
Risks to people were assessed but actions for staff to take were unclear and risk assessments were not always in place.
The provider did not conduct mental capacity assessments or best interests decisions for people who may lack the capacity to make decisions about their care and support. Therefore, people were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always 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.
Care plans we saw contained good person centred detail about their routines, preferences and how staff were to support them. However, records did not always contain consistent information.
People received their medicines as prescribed, and staff had sufficient training and support to meet peoples needs. There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s needs.
Care plans took into account people’s diverse characteristics and backgrounds. Staff promoted people’s dignity and independence.
There was a complaints policy in place and complaints were managed in line with the service's policies and procedures.
We made a recommendation with regards to risk assessment.
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 September 2018) and there were three breaches of the regulations identified. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found that although some improvements had been made and was no longer in breach of some regulations, the provider was still in breach of regulation 17 and a new breach of regulation was identified (regulation 11).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
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 with the 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.