23 November 2022
During a routine inspection
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
Staff did not always arrive on time for their calls and stay the agreed time. Staff recruitment had not always ben consistently robust.
People and their relatives told us that most staff were kind and caring. Risks associated with people’s health and care needs were assessed and written guidance was available for staff on how to keep people safe.
People received their medicines safely as prescribed. This was an area which had improved since the last inspection.
Staff had a good understanding of how to recognise and to prevent pressure ulcers and how to raise concerns if they felt a person was being abused. The service gave staff booklets on these topics to ensure they had information to hand to tell them what to do. The service understood the importance of infection prevention and control and had measures in place to help keep people safe from risk of infection.
The service monitored the safety of people who were particularly vulnerable. Care workers were trained for their role. They told us they felt supported by the service.
People were supported with meals and to access other services such as health services. 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.
People and their relatives were generally happy with the support they received from this service and had been involved in the planning and delivery of care. The service checked regularly whether people were satisfied. The service learned from incidents and mistakes and made continuous improvements.
There was some good personcentred practice, examples included a food and cleaning supplies bank, activity library and birthday and Christmas gifts for people who had no family.
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 16 November 2021). The provider completed an action plan 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
The inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. The inspection was also prompted in part by notification of an incident following which a person using the service died. This incident is subject to a criminal investigation and as a result this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident. However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the management of risk and emergencies and management of medicines. This inspection examined those risks.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe and well-led key questions of this full report. The provider had taken action to mitigate the risks.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for HomeDot Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendations
We made two recommendations relating to staffing. One was to ensure the timeliness of care calls and the other was to ensure recruitment checks are robust at all times.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.