- Homecare service
East Anglia Domiciliary Care Branch
Report from 6 March 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
East Anglia Domiciliary Care Branch is a domiciliary care service, who provide care and support to people living with a learning disability in their own homes in Norfolk and Suffolk. We carried out this as assessment in response to concerns we had about risks within the service. At the time of our assessment 48 people were using the service. We completed the assessment between 19 March 2024 and 17 May 2024 when feedback was given. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ (RSRCRC) is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. This guidance was reviewed as part of this assessment, and we found the provider had failed to meet the principles of it. People were not supported to live independent lives. Risks were not well managed. The provider did not have appropriate systems in place to ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse. There were not always sufficient levels of staff deployed to ensure safety of care. Staff were not sufficiently trained to meet the needs of people. People were not always given choices around their care. There was a lack of management and provider oversight to review shortfalls of care to make improvements. The provider did not focus on people’s quality of life and care delivery was not person-centred. The provider and staff did not recognise how to promote people’s rights, choices and independence. There were 7 breaches identified in safe care and treatment, person-centred care, dignity and respect, safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, the need for consent, staffing and good governance.
People's experience of this service
People we spoke to and their relatives gave mixed accounts about the care provided. Some spoke positively about some of the long established staff and how well they knew people. However, this level of care was not always provided by all staff or by agency staff who were being used regularly. Relatives and people spoke about lack of provision of activities, especially outside of the homes and since covid, which had resulted in some people not wanting to leave their home. We found restrictions being placed upon people which were not necessarily the least restrictive, impacting on what they could do and the care they were provided with. The principles of RSRCRC were not being met as the model of care provided did not allow people to live empowered lives with maximum choice and independence.