V&C Family Care Ltd

Updated 13 July 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short notice announcement of one hour. This was to ensure someone would be available at the office when we visited.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed all the information we had received about the service since it’s registration.

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) before this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people using the service about their experience of the care they received. We spoke with six members of staff, including the registered manager and a director of the company.

We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at five staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 13 July 2022

About the service

V&C Family Care LTD is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 11 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 significant shortfalls in the risk management procedures in place at the service, which meant people were placed at risk of harm.

There was an absence of clear risk assessments and care plans to guide staff on how to provide care to people in a safe way and meet their needs.

Appropriate recruitment checks had not always been completed. This meant that some staff were working with vulnerable people without having had criminal records checks (DBS) or appropriate background checks.

Staff had not been provided with training appropriate for the role and this placed people at risk of receiving care that was unsafe or inappropriate.

It was unclear if medicines had been managed and administered safely, because there was an absence of a formal system to oversee their administration.

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.

The management of the service could not demonstrate they had the skills, competence and knowledge to run this type of service and they did not have a full and complete understanding of what was expected of them.

People made positive comments about the staff that provided them with care and said they were kind, caring people. However, we were not assured that a culture of kindness and caring was instilled by the provider.

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.