Archived: SOS Homecare Halton Service

This inspection took place on 21 July, 10 August and 3 September 2015. The provider was given 24 hours’ notice on the first and third days because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone was available in the office as well as giving notice to people who used the service that we would like to visit them at home.

This was the first inspection of SOS Homecare Halton Service since it registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2014. At the time of the inspection the provider was supporting 24 people with personal care in their own homes. The majority of people who used the service were older people. Most of the service was provided on the basis of a commission by Halton Borough Council.

There has been a registered manager at SOS Homecare Halton Service continuously throughout its registration with the CQC. 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. The registered manager had recently changed in August 2015 just before our inspection.

We found breaches of Regulations relating to medicines, safe care and treatment and governance. Medicines were not always administered safely, we could not be satisfied that people had received the care planned for them and records were not always kept accurately. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

We found that the service provided by SOS Homecare Halton Service required improvement in all the areas we looked at. In addition to the breaches of regulations, people who used the service did not feel that they were always informed if staff were not going to attend on time as agreed. Quality assurance systems had not delivered the improvements which they identified were required.

People who used the service felt safe and staff were checked as suitable for their role, inducted into it and then trained so they could do their jobs. People who used the service liked the staff and were complimentary about them. Care plan documentation was easy to understand and was designed around the needs of people who used the service. Management had access to good information available about the service and had implemented some communication systems such as staff meetings and supervision.