Background to this inspection
Updated
1 July 2021
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 Care Act 2014.
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.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
We gave a short period notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
During the inspection
We spoke with two people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the deputy manager and the recruitment officer. We reviewed a range of records. This included all three people’s care records. We looked at three 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 provider to validate evidence found and liaised with the director. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We emailed three members of staff to obtain their feedback about the service and received a reply from them.
Updated
1 July 2021
About the service
True Quality Service – West London is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to older people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was providing care to three 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 told us they felt safe. Where there were risks to people’s safety and wellbeing, these had been assessed and the provider had done all that was reasonably practicable to lessen those risks. People who used the service did not require support with their medicines. However, the provider had a medicines policy and procedure in place and staff received training in these.
People's care and risk management plans set out the care tasks they required help with and these contained personalised information about people and their preferences for how they liked to be supported.
There were robust systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and recognise when improvements were required. The provider was transparent and there was clear communication within the team, so they learnt from mistakes and made improvements when things went wrong.
We received positive feedback from people about using the service. People said staff were caring and treated them with dignity and respect.
There was enough staff to support people and staff usually arrived on time at people’s homes. The provider’s monitoring system helped ensure people received all their visits as planned. Staff received an induction, training and supervision and felt supported in their roles.
The provider sought feedback from people, relatives and staff and used this to develop the service. People and staff were confident they could raise any concerns they had with the registered manager and felt they would be listened to.
The registered manager and senior staff were responsive to and worked in partnership with other agencies to meet people’s needs.
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.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
When we last inspected the service on 16 January 2019 (published 21 March 2019), they were providing personal care to only one person. This meant we were unable to judge in detail whether the agency was meeting the regulations and providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led care to people. Consequently, we could not rate the quality of the service as we had insufficient evidence on which to do so.
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the service from a member of the public. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led sections of this full report.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.