Knights Home Care Services Ltd

Updated 15 December 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 2 people who used the service and 5 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We received feedback from 5 members of staff including the registered manager, care-coordinator, care staff and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We spoke with 2 professionals who worked with the service.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people’s care records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, policies and procedures and training records were reviewed.

Updated 15 December 2023

About the service

Knights Home Care Services Ltd is a service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides long term, short term, and 24-hour care to people within the community. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 13 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People were protected from the risk of abuse, harm and neglect. Staff received training in how to keep people safe and knew how to report their concerns.

People and relatives we spoke with told us they were supported by a small and consistent team of staff who were knew them well. Staff arrived on time and stayed the required amount of time.

Processes were in place to support people with their medicines if required. Infection control measures were in place including staff use of personal protective equipment (PPE). People's needs were assessed before the package of care commenced. Staff received an induction and training for their roles.

People told us the service was well led and they received person centred care. Staff and relatives we spoke with supported this and told us management were open and approachable. Management and staff were clear about their roles, responsibilities and continuously looked for ways to develop and improve the service and the level of care provided.

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; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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 good (published 13 February 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and due to the length of time since the previous inspection.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Knights Home Care Services Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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