Angels Care At Home Ltd

Updated 10 July 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and one Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Angels Care at Home Limited are a domiciliary care agency (DCA). The service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. There were two registered managers. 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'. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the provider two days notice of the inspection. The office site visit took place on 18 June 2020.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to return a provider information return (PIR) prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law. We contacted five staff to ask for their feedback.

During the inspection

During the site office visit we met the registered manager and the supervisor and reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s electronic care records and samples of medicine records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and training. A variety of records relating to the management of the service including policies, accidents records and audits were also viewed.

After the inspection

We telephoned four people using the service and three relatives. We continued to seek additional evidence from the provider and contacted three external professionals to seek their views.

Updated 10 July 2021

About the service

Angels Care at Home Ltd, referred to as Angels Care at Home in this report, is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes in Swindon and Hertfordshire. On the day of our inspection 18 people received regulated activity.

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

People were safe receiving care from the service and benefitted from a sufficient number of consistent and safely recruited staff. People were supported to have their medicines as prescribed. Risks to people's individual conditions, such as around mobility or skin integrity had been assessed and known to staff. Staff were trained in infection control good practice and had access to protective personal equipment (PPE). People told us staff wore PPE and followed infection control guidance.

People were supported with meeting their nutritional needs, such as with meals preparation. Staff received ongoing training relevant to their roles and people told us staff were skilled and knowledgeable. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Staff supported people with accessing health care services when needed.

The provider, who was also the registered manager was now supported by the second registered manager. There was a new office team and a clear structure with defined roles and responsibilities. The management team introduced a number of governance systems that needed embedding to ensure these were fully effective.

People were complimentary about how the service was run and told us they were happy with the service received. The team worked well with various external social and care professionals.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 24 December 2020) and the provider was found to be at continuing breach of the Regulation 17 (Good Governance). As a result we issued the provider with a warning notice and asked they made improvements by the end of January 2021.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations. Given the history of non-compliance with the Regulation 17, the provider’s quality assurance systems needed embedding to ensure these were fully effective.

Why we inspected:

This was our scheduled, planned inspection based on previous rating.

Follow up:

We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

More information is in detailed findings below.