Zenith Care Recruitment

Zenith Care Recruitment is a domiciliary care agency based in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. The service provides personal care to adults in their own homes. 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.

At the time of our inspection, the service provided personal care to 6 people.

People’s experience of using this service

Risk assessments were in place to ensure people always received safe care. This included risk assessments for people with specific health conditions. Medicines were being managed safely. Systems were in place to manage accidents and incidents. Systems were in place to ensure staff attended care calls on time. Pre-employment checks were carried out to ensure staff were suitable to support people safely. Systems were in place for infection control.

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

Quality assurance systems were in place to identify shortfalls and take prompt action to ensure people always received safe care. Feedback was sought from people and staff to make improvements to the service.

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 the service was Good, published on 9 October 2018.

Why we inspected

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

This was a focus inspection. The report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

Follow up

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

The service had a registered manager. 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 legal requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and the associated regulations on how the service is run.

Some risks to people were not always robustly managed. We found some care plans did not contain suitable and sufficient risk assessments to effectively manage risks. We made a recommendation in this area.

Audits had not identified shortfalls with risk assessments and information on care plans such as how to support people with meals and how to communicate effectively with people. Records had not been kept of the findings and the areas that had been covered during audits. This was important to make sure that any identified actions could be monitored to ensure this had been implemented and to keep people safe at all times. We made a recommendation in this area.

People were given choices with meal times. However, people’s preferences and type of support people required with meals had not been included in their care plans to ensure all staff would be aware of this.

People’s ability to communicate were recorded in their care plans. However, there was no information on how staff should communicate with people particularly how staff would make information accessible to people.

Staff were aware of how to identify abuse and knew who to report abuse to, both within the organisation and externally.

There were arrangements in place to ensure staff attended care visits on time. Staff told us they had time to provide person centred care and the service had enough staff to support people.

Medicines were managed safely. We found that people’s Medicine Administration Records (MAR) had been completed accurately. Medicines were being administered as instructed on people’s MAR, or in accordance with the provider’s policy.

Pre-employment checks had been carried out in full to ensure staff were suitable to provide care and support to people safely.

Staff had been trained to perform their roles effectively. Staff had also received specialist training to help support people with complex care needs.

Pre-assessment forms had been completed to assess people’s needs and their background before they started using the service. Reviews were held regularly to identify people’s current preferences and support needs.

People were being cared for by staff who felt supported by the management team.

People were supported to access healthcare if needed. Staff knew if people were not feeling well and who to report to.

People’s privacy and dignity were respected by staff. Relatives told us that staff were caring and they had a good relationship with them.

People, relatives and staff, were positive about the management team. People’s feedback was sought from surveys.

No complaints had been received but complaint forms were available and staff were aware of how to manage complaints.

Formal one-to-one supervisions of staff had been completed regularly in accordance to the providers supervision policy, to ensure staff felt supported at all times.

Staff had been trained in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and were aware of the principles of the act. Staff sought people’s consent before supporting them.