OASIS West London Office

About the service

Oasis Care and Training Agency (OCTA) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living with dementia and people with learning disabilities living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the agency was providing a service of personal care to 210 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

The service was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support

People's mental capacity assessments were not always clear as to whether the assessment and decision was in the person's best interest and if this was the least restrictive measure. Staff respected people's choices and supported them to make decisions about their day-to-day care.

Right Care

Risk assessment and care plans required further development to be clear on individual support needs. There were examples where in places they were not coordinated, this meant that people may not get the most effective support. People received kind and compassionate care.

Positive risk taking was not always encouraged or enabled. Risk assessments were undertaken but these were sometimes basic and lacked individual detail.

Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.

Right Culture

The provider's systems for monitoring and improving the service were not always implemented effectively. They had failed to identify and plan for risks people were exposed to. The staff did not always have relevant training and supervision.

Staff had received training but did not have a good understanding of best practice models of care. This meant people did not always receive tailored support that empowered them as an individual.

People using the service and their relatives liked their individual care.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at

The last rating for this service was good (published 23 January 2021).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

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

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to the safe care and treatment, the lack of robust recruitment and staff levels, training and supervisions. We have also identified breaches in relation to the lack of care planning, lack of understanding of capacity assessments and lack of effective audits and risk assessments.

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.

Oasis West London Office is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to people living in their own homes in London and the South East of England. The provider, Oasis Care and Training Agency (OCTA), is a non-profit making charity with three domiciliary care branches and a separate training department offering health and social care training.

At the time of our inspection 91 people were using the service form this branch. Most people were older adults, although some were younger adults with physical disabilities.

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 were happy with support they received. They felt safe and well cared for. They were involved in planning their care and felt this met their needs and preferences. People, and their families, had good relationships with the care workers, who were kind and treated them respectfully.

There were enough suitable staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe. There were robust recruitment processes and staff received the training, supervision and support they needed to understand their roles and responsibilities. The staff liked working at the agency and felt well supported.

People's care had been planned and was regularly reviewed to make sure it met their needs. Plans included assessments of risks and how people should be supported to minimise the risk of harm. Staff kept records to show how they had cared for people. These records showed. people had received their medicines as prescribed, had support with food and drinks and that the staff liaised with other care professionals to help keep people healthy.

There were systems for the provider to learn when things went wrong. These included investigating accidents, incidents and complaints, and taking steps to protect people from further harm. The management team worked closely with other agencies and professionals, as well as asking stakeholders for feedback. There were systems for monitoring the quality of the service, included making improvements based on feedback from others.

The provider offered a community service to local people. This included offering training and employment for local unemployed workers, translation services and supporting people from minority ethnic groups to access and to understand information about healthcare services.

The registered manager worked closely with the nominated individual and other senior staff to monitor and manage the service. People using the service, their relatives and staff spoke positively about the management team.

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 (and update)

The rating at the last inspection was requires improvement (Published 4 September 2019). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.

Oasis Care and Training Agency is a domiciliary care service that provides support and personal care to people living in their own homes. Oasis Care and Training also provide short term support (Reablement) to people who have been discharged from hospital. 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 was supporting 80 people with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Our findings during the inspection and feedback from some of the people showed they did not always receive their visits at the agreed time. People also said the care workers were unreliable and they were not informed about changes in the care workers who supported them. Medicines were not always managed safely.

People were looked after by staff who understood their safeguarding role and responsibilities.

Staff had access to appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to help prevent the spread of infection and people told us staff used this.

People's needs were assessed prior to them receiving care and support. The service worked in partnership with other health and social care professionals and these relationships had supported some people to have good health outcomes.

We made a recommendation for the provider to make some improvements so 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 and for their policies and systems in the service to be reviewed if required to support this practice.

Staff had access to training which was appropriate to their role. The provider had systems for handling complaints and responding to incidents. The provider did not always record end of life wishes however care workers had supported people who were reaching the end of their life appropriately.

Relatives told us that people were treated with dignity and respect. They were also positive about the staff and they told us that staff had a caring attitude.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection This service was registered with us on 7 June 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected:

We inspect newly registered services within one year of them starting to provide a regulated activity.

Enforcement:

We identified two breaches of regulations in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme and to check that improvements have been made. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.