Lotus Home Care Huddersfield

Updated 15 March 2024

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 service was inspected 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.

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 Care Quality Commission 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

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 9 January 2024 and ended on 30 January 2024. We visited the location's office on 9 January 2024.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service. 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 10 members of staff including the registered manager. We spoke with 6 people and 9 relatives for their experiences of using the service. We looked at the care plans and medication records of 3 people, policies and procedures, 3 staff recruitment files and a number of quality audits.

Updated 15 March 2024

About the service

Lotus care is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to adults and older people in their own homes. The service supports people with physical disabilities and mental health needs. At the time of our inspection there were 82 people using the service.

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

During this inspection, we found inconsistency in how the provider was following and applying their recruitment policy. People and staff raised concerns regarding the training staff received. We made a recommendation in relation to training. Staff did not feel supported by the management and there was a lack of supervisions completed with staff.

Staff and people did not feel their concerns were listened to or acted upon. Staff told us they did not think they always had enough time to travel between care visits, however people and relatives did not raise concerns in this area. We reviewed evidence confirming accidents and incidents were reviewed and lessons learnt shared with staff.

Care plans lacked detail around how best to support people. We made a recommendation in relation to care plans and risk assessments. Staff also felt changes to people’s needs were not communicated to the staff team promptly. Medication times were not being logged so it was not clear if a there was a sufficient gap between doses.

The quality assurance processes failed to identify concerns relating to medication, care plans, recruitment, complaints and supervisions. We found no evidence the service had sought feedback from people, staff or relatives.

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 good (published 1 April 2021).

Why we inspected

We inspected this service due to concerns we had received regarding the recruitment of staff and the quality of care provided. We completed a focused inspection of the key questions safe and well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the rating awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

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

Enforcement

We have identified a breach in relation to good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.