21 July 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Hallam24 Healthcare is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care to adults with a range of support needs in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting 29 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Risks to people had not been fully assessed. There was not always guidance for staff on how to best manage risks. Accidents and incidents were not analysed, which meant staff could not learn from these events. The systems in place to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed were not effective.
Care records did not always contain an accurate assessment of all of people’s care and support needs. Care records were not always person-centred. Effective systems had not been established for identifying, receiving, recording, handling and responding to complaints.
The registered manager had not acted on most of the recommendations made at our last inspection. In addition, at this inspection we identified new concerns with regard to medicines management and complaints. The registered manager had not established effective quality assurance processes. They did have some audits in place, however these had not identified the issues we found during this inspection.
The provider had effective recruitment procedures in place to make sure staff had the required skills and were of suitable character and background. Staff understood what it meant to protect people from abuse. Most people told us staff were kind and caring. The provider had policies and procedures which reflected current legislation and good practice guidance.
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 requires improvement (published 12 April 2019). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two inspections.
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, responsive and well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hallam24 Healthcare on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Enforcement
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 discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to good governance, management of medicines and responding to complaints. 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 for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authorities to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.