16 February 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Global Caring Gloucester is a domiciliary care service providing the regulated activity of personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 35 people using the service. 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.
People's experience of using this service and what we found
Effective systems were not always being used to monitor the quality of people’s care, call times and the accuracy of record keeping. The provider’s systems and record keeping needed to be strengthened to assist them in monitoring the service and the quality of care.
The management of people’s risks were not always comprehensively recorded which placed people at risk of not receiving appropriate care and support.
We received mixed views from people and their relatives about the punctuality of staff and the duration of their care calls. A new system was being implemented to assist the provider and local authority to monitor people's care calls.
Staff did not always have access to guidance on how to support people to manage their medicines and reduce people's risks.
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.
The provider used any feedback to help them drive improvements. Lessons were learnt and improvements were made when incidents occurred.
People and their relatives shared mixed views about the staff who supported them and the communication they received from the registered manager and staff.
Staff understood the importance of reporting any safeguarding concerns, incidents or changes in people's health and well-being. Safe infection control practices were used.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Good. (published 29 June 2022).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the punctuality of staff and the management of people’s risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from Good to Requires Improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
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 Global Caring Gloucester on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to the management of people's risk and prescribed medicines and the provider’s quality monitoring systems and record keeping.
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 inspection.