Care 24-7 Limited

Updated 2 June 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection took place between 26 March and 4 April 2018 and was announced. We gave the provider a short amount of notice that we would be visited the office, because the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or meeting people who use the service. We needed to be sure that they would be in. On 26 March, we made phone calls to people to ask them about the quality of care they received. On the 28 March we visited the providers office to look at care related documentation and speak with the manager of the service. Between 3 and 4 April we telephoned care workers.

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an assistant inspector.

Before the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the provider such as notifications and any information people had shared with us. We also spoke with the local authority commissioning and safeguarding teams to ask them for their views on the service and whether they had any concerns. We reviewed the information on the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection, we spoke with ten people who used the service. We spoke with seven care workers, the manager, the provider, a director and the admin support. We looked at ten people’s care records and records relating to the management of the service including staff training records, audits and meeting minutes.

Updated 2 June 2018

The inspection took place between 26 March and 4 April 2018 and was announced.

Care 24-7 limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to both older adults and, younger disabled adults. At the time of the inspection, 101 people were receiving personal care from the service.

A registered manager was in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At our last inspection, we rated the service good. At this inspection, we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

We found the service was not always safe. Staff were trained in safeguarding people from abuse and put this training into practice. Staff had time to spend with people. We saw safeguarding procedures were in place and these were followed to help keep people safe.

Medicines were managed safely and staff had good knowledge of the medicine systems and procedures in place to support this. The support people received with their medicines was person centred and responsive to their needs. However, there was a shortfall in documentation; the provider had a plan in place to address this.

The service worked in partnership with other agencies including health professionals to help ensure people’s needs were met. People’s healthcare needs were assessed and plans of care put in place.

Staff were skilled and competent to meet the needs of people. Training was tailored to meet the needs of the residents. People were supported by kind, caring and compassionate staff. This meant people received good care.

There was enough staff deployed to ensure people received consistently and timely care. Staff were able to arrive on time and stay with people for the allocated amount of time. Safe recruitment procedures were followed to help ensure staff were of suitable character to work with vulnerable people. Staff received a range of training which was relevant to their role.

The service was compliant with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). People’s consent was sought before care and support was offered.

A complaints procedure was in place, which enabled people to raise any concerns or complaints about the care, or support they received.

Incidents and accidents were recorded and investigated by the service. We saw a low number of incidents had occurred with no concerning trends or themes.