Archived: Kare Plus Homecare West Midlands

Kare Plus Homecare West Midlands is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and supported living services. The provider currently supports up to 53 people living in their own houses and flats and supported living services in the community. Supported living services

enable people to live in their own home and live their lives as independently as possible.

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

We found improvements were needed in relation to the documents we viewed to ensure people received a safe service. It was not always possible to establish when people had needed medicine administered to them. Protocols in administration of medicines were not always in place to ensure they were administered safely and when required.

Care plans and risk assessments viewed did not always provide enough detailed personalised information to ensure staff could provide consistent safe care.

Accidents and incidents were not always discussed and reviewed to ensure learning and improvements were made to people’s care.

Management systems had not identified the shortfalls in the records identified during this inspection.

The registered manager was aware of the need to inform the Care Quality Commission of certain events although it was found one notification had not been sent due to an oversight.

People and relatives spoke positively about the service and staff, saying they [staff] treat their family member well. The provider had a policy and procedure to safeguard people from abuse. Staff had received training in safeguarding and knew how to report any concerns.

People were protected from the risk of cross infection as staff had received infection control training and followed guidelines in relation to personal protective equipment (PPE) in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recruitment was undertaken safely, with appropriate background checks before staff started work.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 12 April 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the safety of people using the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Kare Plus Homecare West Midlands on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

Kareplus Worcestershire is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection it was providing care to 68 people.

People's experience of using this service:

People continued to receive care that was safe. People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff understood their role and responsibilities in keeping people safe, they had received safeguarding training and had a safeguarding policy and procedure to inform their practice. Staff were safely recruited and deployed to provide people's care. Risks to people's health, associated with their care and related safety needs, were effectively monitored and managed. Staff supported people to take their medicines safely when required.

People continued to receive care that was effective. People's care needs were effectively assessed, carried out and regularly reviewed, in agreement with them or their representative. Records relating to consent for care were accurately completed and people told us they were always offered choice and control over the care they received.

Staff spoke of their commitment to deliver care in a person-centred way based on people's preferences and likes. Staff treated people with kindness, compassion and respect and ensured that people's dignity was maintained at all times. People spoke positively about the care and support they received. Most people told us they received support from regular staff who stayed the right amount of time and knew them well. People were informed and involved to make ongoing decisions about their care; or to access relevant advocacy services, if needed.

People continued to receive care that was timely and responsive to their individual needs and wishes. People were confident and knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint if they needed to. People's views, feedback and any complaints received were monitored by the provider and used to help inform any service improvements needed. Staff were trained and supported to follow nationally recognised best practice standards, concerned with people's care at the end of life.

The provider operated effective governance and quality assurance systems for service improvement. Staff understood their role and responsibilities for people's care. The manager and staff worked in partnership with people, their representatives and relevant health or social care agencies when needed.

More information is in the full report.

Rating at last inspection: Good (published 16 March 2016).

Why we inspected:

This was a scheduled inspection based on the previous ratings.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive.

Kareplus Worcestershire is registered to provide personal care to people. At the time of our inspection 73 people received care and support.

There was no registered manager in place for this service. A manager was in place and had applied to register with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

We carried out a comprehensive inspection at this service on 27 and 29 May and 8 June 2015. A breach of a legal requirement was found. After the comprehensive inspection, the provider wrote to us to say what they would do to meet the legal requirement in relation to the breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The breach was due to shortfalls in good governance.

In addition to the breach in Regulation we also found areas where improvement was needed to ensure the service provided support to people to ensure it was safe and met their identified care needs.

At this inspection we found action had been taken to ensure people received a service which met their identified care needs. The provider had taken appropriate steps to improve systems to ensure good governance. Systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service provided and staff were supported in their work.

People and their family members were confident in the service provided. Staff were knowledgeable about how to protect people from the risk of abuse. Care plans and risk assessments had been reviewed and updated to provide staff with the information and guidance needed to care and support people safely.

People told us staff treated them with respect and their privacy and dignity was maintained while care was provided. Staff had knowledge about people’s care needs and how these were to be met. People received their medicines as prescribed and staff supported people to have their healthcare needs meet.

Before new staff started working for the provider checks were carried out. Induction training was in place to support new staff members. Induction training including spending time with experienced members of staff and getting to know people who used the service was in place.

People’s consent was obtained before care and support was provided. People and their family members were aware of how to raise concerns about the service provided with the manager.

Staff felt well supported and were complimentary about the management. Staff had received training to provide them with the knowledge they needed to support people safely. Meetings were held for staff to discuss the service. Staff attended regular one to one meetings and had their practice checked while they were providing care and support to people.

People we spoke with were complimentary about the care and support that they received. One person said: “They are prompt and they do their job fine.” Another person said: “They are very good.”

We found consent had been obtained from people before care had been provided. We also found that steps had been taken to ensure that people received individualised care. Care had been planned and delivered in a way that was intended to ensure people's safety and welfare.

People had been protected from the risk of harm and abuse because staff had received training. We found staff had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities with regard to safeguarding.

Staff had been recruited in an appropriate way and checks had been undertaken that ensured they were suitable to care for vulnerable people.

The provider had systems of audit in place to enable them to monitor the quality of the service provided to ensure that people received appropriate care and treatment.

We spoke on the telephone with two people who used the service and one relative. In addition to this we spoke with five members of staff who provided care and support to people who used the service.

We found that people had been involved in making decisions about their care and were satisfied with the care they received from staff. People we spoke with told us they felt safe when receiving care.

Care plans had been recorded for each person. This provided information for staff who visited them and ensured their individual needs would be met. When we spoke with staff they told us about the care people received and this matched the information in their care plans.

There were effective recruitment and selection processes in place. This ensured that people who used the service were cared for by staff that were suitably capable and competent.