Almond Tree Care Ltd

Almond Tree Care LTD is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 26 people receiving the regulated activity of ‘personal care’ in their own homes. 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 told us that they were safe and well cared for by the service. Despite this, we found shortfalls in the risk management procedures in place at the service which meant people could be at risk of harm.

There were not always appropriate risk assessments and care plans to guide staff on how to provide care to people in a safe way and meet their needs. Staff did not demonstrate an understanding of the risks to people they cared for.

People did not always have an assessment of their capacity to make decisions where this would have been appropriate. It was unclear if the provider understood when they should carry one out.

The management and oversight of the service was insufficient. Systems were not in place to identify shortfalls we found at the inspection and take action to rectify these.

Medicines had been managed and administered safely and there was a system to oversee their administration.

Staff had been trained and had their competency assessed to ensure training had been effective.

People made positive comments about the staff that provided them with care and said they were kind, caring people.

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

Rating at last inspection

This is the first inspection of this service since it registered with CQC.

Why we inspected

This inspection was brought forward due to concerns about how the service was being managed and delivered.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

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.