Dementia Care TLC

Updated 23 June 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 1 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

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 19 May 2023 and ended on 26 May 2023. We visited the location’s office on 24 May 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 8 people who used the service and 7 relatives. We spoke with 6 members of staff which included the provider. We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care records and 6 people’s medicines records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment. We looked at staff training and induction records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service and quality assurance were reviewed including policies and procedures and audits. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service.

Updated 23 June 2023

About the service

Dementia Care TLC is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to adults with a range of support needs including people living with dementia. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care to 30 people living in their own homes in the local community.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

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; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff supported people with their medicines safely. Staff assessed environmental risks and followed safe infection control procedures. Staff supported people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Right Care:

The service had care plans and guidance for staff to support people with their individual risks. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. People received support to maintain a balanced diet. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

Right Culture:

People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity. Improvements had been made since the last inspection. Systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service; people spoke positively of the leadership team and support they received from staff. The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity.

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 January 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 16 November and 7 December 2020. Breaches of legal requirements were found relating to Regulation 11 (need for consent), Regulation 12 (safe care and treatment) and Regulation 17 (good governance). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment, need for consent and good governance.

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, Effective 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 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 Dementia Care TLC on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.