Archived: Cera Hammersmith

Updated 18 January 2023

Inspection team

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 inspection was carried out by four Inspectors and two Experts 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

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

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. However, the branch manager had started the process of becoming the registered manager.

Notice of 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 in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we held about the service, including complaints and notifications of serious incidents the provider is required to tell us about. We spoke with the contracts and complaints team at the local authority. 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

Inspection activity started on 22nd November and ended on 1st December 2022. We visited the location’s office/service location on 22nd and 24th November.

We spoke with the branch manager, two regional directors and the ECM officer. We made calls to 37 people who used the service and 14 of their family members and 8 care workers.

We looked at records of care and support for 17 people who used the service and records of recruitment, training and supervision for 8 care workers. We reviewed information relating to the management of the service including team meetings, overviews of training and audit and records of complaints, safeguarding and incidents. We reviewed records of electronic call monitoring for 259 people.

Updated 18 January 2023

About the service

Cera Hammersmith is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care to older people and people with physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were 259 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. In this service, the Care Quality Commission can only inspect the service received by people who get support with personal care. This includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where people receive such support, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

The service did not have enough staff to safely meet people’s needs. Many people we spoke with told us that calls were often late which could cause uncertainty. Some staff had unmanageable rotas, which meant they struggled to attend calls on time. The provider acknowledged they did not have enough staff and were taking appropriate steps to improve recruitment.

People told us they were treated with respect by their care workers and felt safe when care workers visited. There were suitable measures in place to safeguard people from abuse. Staff were competent in moving and handling and people had suitable risk management plans in place. Medicines were safely managed with appropriate oversight of these by supervisors.

The provider did not operate electronic call monitoring systems effectively in a way that meant they could adequately monitor the safe delivery of care. The provider was moving to a new electronic recording system which was set up to allow more effective monitoring, but this was not in place at the time of our inspection.

Care workers told us they were often busy and could struggle to attend calls, but that they felt well supported and listened to by managers. People received regular monitoring visits and calls, but often reported difficulty in reaching the office if they had an issue they needed to discuss.

The service had systems in place to ensure there was learning from when things had gone wrong.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was good (published 20 May 2020).

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement

We have found a breach in relation to how the service monitors the quality and delivery of care.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of the full version 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.