Malkuwth Home Care Limited

Updated 10 August 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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 24 and 27 July 2017 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service; we needed to be sure that someone would be in to assist with the inspection.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed notifications and any other information we had received since the last inspection. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

We contacted community professionals, for example, the local authority and a healthcare worker. We also contacted three people’s relatives after the inspection, to ask them about standards of care at the service.

Surveys were sent to people who used the service and staff prior to the inspection. Emails were also sent to staff once we had announced our intention to visit. We have used any feedback to help inform our judgements about the service.

We spoke with the registered manager and the finance and technical manager. We checked some of the required records. These included four people’s care plans, three people’s medicines records, three staff recruitment files and three staff training and development files. Other records we sampled included quality assurance documents, policies and procedures and minutes of staff meetings.

Updated 10 August 2017

This inspection took place on 24 and 27 July 2017. It was an announced visit to the service.

This was the service’s first inspection since registration.

Malkuwth Home Care Limited provides care to people in their own homes. Six people were receiving care at the time of our inspection, in the High Wycombe area.

The service had 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 about how the service is run.

We received positive feedback about the service. Comments from people included “I can’t fault them,” “You can sit back and relax” and “Continuity of care has been incredibly reassuring.” A relative told us “Carers do an incredible job. Without them (family member) would have gone into care.” Another relative said “It’s more of a devotion than it is a job, that’s the kind of people they are.”

People were protected from the risk of abuse. There were safeguarding procedures and training on abuse to provide staff with the skills and knowledge to recognise and respond to safeguarding concerns. Written risk assessments had been prepared to reduce the likelihood of injury or harm to people during the provision of their care. People’s medicines were handled safely and given to them in accordance with their prescriptions.

There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs. The service used thorough recruitment processes to select staff, to make sure people were supported by staff with the right skills and attributes. Staff received appropriate support through a structured induction and regular supervision. They kept their training updated to make sure they supported people safely.

Care plans had been written for each person to record the support they required. These had been kept up to date to reflect changes in people’s needs.

There had not been any complaints about the service. People knew how to raise any concerns if they needed to.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service was managed well. The provider regularly checked the quality of care at the service through home visits to people, spot checks and audits. Records were maintained to a good standard and staff had access to policies and procedures to guide their practice.