Archived: Castlerock Recruitment Group Limited

Updated 7 April 2016

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.

This inspection took place on 5 and 7January 2016 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by one inspector and a bank inspector.

We reviewed the information about Castlerock held by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) such as previous inspection records and notifications we had received from the registered manager. Notifications are required to be sent by the registered provider and inform CQC of any significant events about the service or people living at the home.

Before our inspection we spoke with the local authority’s safeguarding team and the contracts monitoring team to check if they had identified any concerns or issues on their monitoring visits to the home. There were two safeguarding issues under investigation, which related to a number of missed calls to two people who used the service.

During the inspection we went to the registered provider’s office and spoke with the registered manager, the manager for home care, the operations manager, the quality assurance manager for the organisation and six members of staff. After the inspection visit to the office we contacted 11 people by phone to obtain their views about the agency, including some of the relatives of the people who used the service. Most of the feedback was positive. The less positive feedback was particularly around missed and late calls.

We looked at the care records of six people who used the service, including their care plans, risk assessments and other records and documentation regarding health needs and monitoring., We looked at the files of six members of staff including recruitment, supervision and training provision. Other records checked included, audits, medication administration records (MAR), quality assurance monitoring survey questionnaires (received from people and their relatives) and policies and procedures.

Updated 7 April 2016

The inspection of Castlerock Recruitment Group was unannounced and took place on 5 and 7 January 2016. Castlerock Recruitment Group (Domiciliary Care Agency) is a large domiciliary care agency that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes in St Helens, Warrington and Halton. The office is based in St Helens.

There is a registered manager in post. 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. The current registered manager is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organisation. We were informed of plans to change the management structure in the future.

At our previous inspection on 30 October and 1 September 2014 we found that the registered provider was in breach of one regulation, relating to quality assurance monitoring. The registered provider sent us an action plan outlining how they would make improvements. We checked for improvements during this inspection and found that the registered provider had made the necessary improvements to comply with the regulation.

People’s care needs were assessed and care plans were put into place to meet those needs. People’s wishes and preferences were recorded in their care plans. Risks to people’s health and well-being were identified and risk assessments were in place to manage those risks.

Effective recruitment processes were in place and appropriately followed by staff.

Staff had received training in how to recognise and report abuse, although there was some uncertainty with some of the staff of how to put their training into practice.

Recently there had been some staff shortages. The registered provider was in the process of interviewing prospective new staff. The present shortages had been covered by the manager and team leaders.

There were systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service. This included gathering the views and opinions of people who used the service and monitoring the quality of service provided. The monitoring of the service delivery was not always effective.

Skills for care induction training in the Care certificate standards was provided to new staff. This training is planned to be provided to existing staff.

There was a complaints policy and procedure in place, with records of complaints that the agency had received. These had been dealt with appropriately and  in the relevant timescale.