19 December 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Connections Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults living in their own home. During our inspection visit, the service was caring for 56 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 and relatives were overwhelmingly positive about staff and told us the service provided safe care. However, during this inspection, we found some aspects of the service were not always safe or well managed.
Medicines were not always managed safely. We found some risks to people’s care had not been assessed and the provider had not kept an appropriate oversight that equipment used by staff to move people had passed the required safety checks. These areas were discussed during the inspection, and immediate action taken. There was a safeguarding procedure in place, staff had received training and were aware of signs of abuse and what action to take. Infection and prevention measures were in place to ensure people and staff were safe. Recruitment was mostly managed safely but gaps in employment were not consistently explored.
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. However, we found the provider was not recording relevant discussions and decisions about the care of people who lacked capacity to make decisions.
Quality assurance measures in place had not always been effective in identifying or addressing the issues found during this inspection. We found records were not always detailed or complete and management oversight had not always been robust in ensuring the service was always safe.
We received positive feedback about the management team being approachable and responsive. People using the service and their relatives told us about the positive impact that the service had on their lives and told us they would recommend the service. During this inspection, the provider was receptive to the inspection’s findings and acted on the issues identified or told us the actions they would take.
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 on 23 August 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to how consent was recorded, safe care of people and management of the service at this inspection.
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 from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.