Croft Healthcare Ltd

Croft Healthcare is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults living in their own home. During our inspection visit, the service was caring for 30 people.

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

Relatives were positive about staff and told us the service provided safe care to their loved ones. However, during this inspection, we found some aspects of the service had not always been managed safely.

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. However, the provider needed to improve the recording of relevant discussions and decisions about the care of people who lacked capacity to make decisions.

Quality assurance measures in place had not always been effective in identifying or addressing the issues found during this inspection.

Most areas of staff recruitment were safe, however, we found evidence confirming staff had started working before the required DBS checks had been completed. We have made a recommendation for the provider to review this area. The provider was not always recording when equipment used to move people had passed the relevant safety checks. This was discussed during the inspection, and immediate action taken.

Overall, medication was managed safely but there were some aspects were recording of medication support was not in line with the provider’s medication policy and good practice guidance.

Although staff had the necessary skills, training and support to carrying out their jobs safely and effectively at the time of the inspection, we reviewed evidence showing staff had started working without completing all the mandatory training.

People received support to maintain good nutrition and hydration and their healthcare needs were met. The provider kept in close contact with relevant healthcare professionals.

Most care plans were detailed, and person centred. Complaints were well managed by the service.

We received positive feedback about the management team being approachable and responsive. During this inspection, they were receptive to the inspection’s findings and acted on the issues identified or told us the actions they would take.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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 15 February 2022 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 a breach in relation to good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

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