Archived: Amandacare

Updated 11 February 2021

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an 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

Amandacare is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people with varying needs living within their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission in post. A registered manager and provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The owner/provider was managing the service.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection to ensure the owner/provider and staff would be present and available to speak with.

What we did before the inspection

We checked the information we had about the service including notifications they had sent us. A notification is information about incidents or events that providers are required to inform us about. We asked the local authority commissioning and safeguarding teams for any information they had about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We met and spoke with the owner/manager and two office staff. Following the office visit we spoke with three care staff by telephone. We also spoke with 19 people and or their relatives by telephone to seek their feedback on the service. We reviewed a range of records including five people’s care plans and records and four staff recruitment and training records. We also reviewed records used in managing the service for example, policies and procedures, monitoring records and audits.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at records related to the management of the service.

Updated 11 February 2021

About the service

Amandacare is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care and support for people living in the London Borough of Bexley and its surrounding areas. Not everyone using Amandacare receives a regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care; that is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection the service was providing personal care and support to 19 people.

People’s experience of using this service

People and their relatives spoke positively about staff and told us they were very happy with the service they received. There were safeguarding policies and procedures in place and staff had a clear understanding of these procedures and the actions to take if they had any concerns. Recruitment checks took place before staff started work and there were enough staff to meet people’s needs safely. Risks to people were assessed, documented, reviewed and monitored to ensure their needs were safely met. The service had procedures in place to reduce the risk of infections and staff had enough personal protective equipment.

Assessments of people’s needs were carried out before they started using the service. People received support to maintain good health. People were supported to maintain a balanced diet where this was part of their plan of care. 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 support this practice. People were treated in a kind and caring manner and were consulted about their care. People knew how to make a complaint if they were unhappy with the service.

There were effective systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of service that people received. The provider took people’s views into account on a regular basis and feedback was used to help improve the service. The provider worked well with health and social 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

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 19 June 2020) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned focused inspection based on the previous rating. We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Amandacare on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.