Glenavon Care Limited

Updated 29 April 2021

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

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors, an assistant inspector and two Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

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

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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. The registered manager was newly appointed since our last inspection. They joined the service in April 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was breaking.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. Due to the pandemic, we gave a short period notice of the inspection to enable us to collate as much information as possible virtually to minimise the time spent by the inspection team visiting the provider’s office.

Inspection activity started on 3 February 2021 and ended on 3 March 2021. We visited the office location on 3 February 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people who used the service and 12 relatives by telephone about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six care workers, two office staff, the registered manager and the two directors.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and medication records. We looked at 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.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We received feedback from four professionals who worked closely with the service and reviewed feedback received from the Local Authority.

Updated 29 April 2021

About the service

Glenavon Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 72 people at the time of the inspection.

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

Although people told us they felt safe with staff they did not always receive visits on time and were not always informed when staff were running late or had been replaced.

We received some negative feedback about how the service was led. Some people and their relatives told us communication was poor; this mainly related to care call visits. Management checks were not in place to monitor call timings and consideration had not been given to the impact late visits and inconsistent staffing would have on people.

We were mindful of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the service and the strain it had placed on service users, staff and the management team. Following the inspection, the provider spoke about the plans they had in place to address the concerns found during the inspection, including recruiting additional senior staff to support the registered manager.

Staff were recruited safely and underwent all the necessary checks.

Medicines were managed safely. Systems were in place to monitor staff competencies to administer medication and identify and address concerns.

Systems and process to help minimise the risk of cross infection were in place. Staff had received additional training and personal protective equipment (PPE) was readily available.

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 19 October 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the leadership of 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. We have found evidence the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Glenavon Care Ltd 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.