Accommodating Care (Driffield)

Updated 2 February 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 one 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 CQC 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 the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 20 October 2022 and ended on 24 October 2022. We visited the location’s office on both these dates.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority. 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 information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place 11 May 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager and care workers. We spoke with 5 people who used the service about their experience of the care provided and 10 relatives. We reviewed a range of records. This included 7 people's care records and multiple medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. The registered manager sent us further information which included a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including staff training records, policies and procedures.

Updated 2 February 2023

About the service

Accommodating Care (Driffield) is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 16 people at the time of inspection. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

Quality Monitoring systems were not effective and failed to identify the shortfalls found at inspection. Records relating to the management of the service lacked detail and did not effectively monitor the service. Quality assurance records did not always contain accurate information or identify actions to make required improvements or learn lessons.

Risks to the health and safety of people were not always identified, monitored and mitigated. This included risks associated with individual health conditions and catheter care. Medicines were not managed safely, and recruitment was not robust.

People felt safe. Staff understood their responsibilities to report any safeguarding concerns. People and relatives spoke positively about the kind nature of the staff team. Staff knew people well and treated them with kindness, compassion and in line with their preferences.

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 8 February 2020) and there were 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 the provider remained in breach of regulations. The service remains rated requires improvement.

This service has been rated requires improvement for the last four consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 28 November 2019. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve good governance of the service.

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.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. 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 Accommodating Care (Driffield) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment , safeguarding and management oversight at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

We have made a recommendation about the recruitment of staff.

Since the last inspection we recognised that the provider had failed to ensure good governance. This was a breach of regulation and we issued a warning notice to the provider.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.