7 March 2022
During a routine inspection
Kingsley Home Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service provided personal care and support to four people. They provided companionship visits to another three people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The service had been registered since July 2020 but following COVID 19 a number of people cancelled their care and the service was dormant for a while. It has only recently become established. The previous manager had left, and a new manager was appointed at the beginning of February 2022.
People were positive about their experiences of the agency and said it was both reliable and person-centred. People had confidence with the care staff, but one relative told us there had been regular staff turnover. Their family member had three different care staff in the last six months as staff had left, but emphasised they had all been very good. Two care packages could not continue to be fulfilled and were handed back to the Local Authority due to staffing shortages. This had a negative impact on the people requiring care, but the service had done all it could to help ensure alternative care was found and people were not left without care.
Staff spoken with were confident about the service they were providing and said the induction, training and care practices particularly around infection control were very good. The head of care told us they were expanding the service slowly, and carefully assessing any new referrals to ensure they had the right staffing in place and staff with the right competencies.
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.
The manager and head of care regularly sought feedback from people and their relatives about the care delivered so this could be adapted where necessary.
There were clear processes in place to escalate concerns and people and staff were confident that things would be effectively resolved. There were systems in place to protect people from harm and abuse and staff understood actions they should take if abuse was identified.
A robust electronic system was in place to plan, monitor and track care calls. The service was well planned and well delivered with no late or missed calls.
Care reviews were taking place regularly to ensure the effectiveness and responsiveness of care and preadmission assessment were robust.
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
This service was registered with us on 22 July 2020 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection.
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