Archived: Mayfair Homecare - Newbury

Updated 28 March 2019

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. The inspection was prompted in part by notification of an incident following which a person using the service was subject to abuse. 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 safe care and risk. This inspection examined those risks.

Inspection team:

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type:

Mayfair Homecare - Newbury is a domiciliary care agency (DCA) providing care and support to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection in July 2017. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about. We had not asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return.

During the inspection we spoke with three people using the service and one family member. We spoke with five care staff, a training manager, the area manager and the manager. We reviewed four people’s care and support records and four staff files. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service such as incident and accident records, meeting minutes, recruitment and training records, policies, audits and complaints. We also spoke with the local authority safeguarding team and commissioners.

Updated 28 March 2019

About the service: Mayfair Homecare - Newbury is a domiciliary care agency (DCA) providing care and support to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults.

Not everyone using Mayfair Homecare – Newbury receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

Mayfair Homecare – Newbury does not currently have a registered manager. 'A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.' The previous registered manager had left in January 2019. The new manager is in post and currently in the process of applying to be registered.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were supported for by a consistent staff team who were kind and caring and appropriately trained. Staff had good relationships with people and knew them well. People were encouraged and supported to maintain their independence. They spoke highly of the care and support they received. “The carers are brilliant, I can’t fault them.”

Appropriate numbers of staff were employed, however safe recruitment practices had not always been followed. The current provider had bought out the previous provider of the service in 2016, a number of staff transferred across to the new service. However, the new provider had not assured themselves that people employed by the previous provider had been recruited safely.

Feedback was sought from people and staff through meetings and questionnaires. People told us they felt comfortable in raising any concerns or issues.

Care plans were person centred and detailed people’s support needs. However, records were not always accurate. Some risk assessments were inaccurate which meant people were at potential risk because staff did not have the most appropriate information and guidance. Quality assurance audits were carried out regularly. Some of those completed were inaccurate, recording information as being present when it was not. Branch audits were also regular. Specific issues identified were addressed but the service failed to identify that some specific issues were actually more widespread.

We identified two breaches of the regulations. Safe recruitment practices were not always followed and governance systems were not effective. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

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

Rating at last inspection: Good (July 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a responsive, focussed inspection prompted by a notification of an incident in which a person using the service was subject to alleged abuse. 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 safe care and risk. This inspection examined those risks. This has been reported on under the safe and well led domains only.