Aroma Care People Ltd

Updated 19 January 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was undertaken by 3 inspectors and 2 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.

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 the registered manager 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that they or the provider would be in the office to support the inspection visit. Inspection activity started on 29 November 2022 and ended on 02 December 2022. We visited the provider's office on 30 November 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we had received about the service since our last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We gathered feedback from local authority commissioners who work with the service. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 10 people and 5 people's relatives via the telephone to gather their feedback about the care and support provided. We spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager, the referrals manager, the care coordinator, 2 care assistants and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed 7 people's care records and 8 people's medication records, staff training data,

some policies and procedures and a range of records relating to the management of the service. We

reviewed the recruitment records of 3 staff to check they had been recruited safely.

Updated 19 January 2023

About the service

Aroma Care People Ltd is a domiciliary care agency which is registered to provide personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection 93 people 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.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The provider needed to take more action to ensure all aspects of the service provided to people were safe. Whilst some action had been taken to improve safely in the months prior to our inspection this had not resulted in enough improvement being made. That meant more lessons needed to be learned.

Staff knew how to provide people’s care safely. However, known risks associated with providing people’s care had not always been assessed. Care records lacked the necessary information to help staff manage and mitigate some individual risks. Whilst people told us they received their medicines when they needed them, the safety of medicines management needed to be improved.

Managerial oversight and the providers systems to check the quality and safety of the service needed to be strengthened. Completed audits and checks had not identified the shortfalls we found. The management team understood their responsibility to be open and honest when things had gone wrong. They welcomed our inspection and took action in response to our feedback.

Staff were recruited safely, and people received their care from familiar staff. However, some feedback indicated people’s care calls were shorter than they should be and did not always take place when people expected. Records we reviewed confirmed this. Action was being taken to address this.

People felt safe with the staff who provided their care and the providers safeguarding systems protected them from harm. Staff had completed safeguarding training and knew how to raise a concern if they thought someone was at risk.

People felt listened to and they were involved in an assessment of their needs prior to them receiving care and support to make sure their needs could be met. The service worked in partnership with other agencies to ensure people received the care and support, they needed to live healthy lives. People were supported to maintain a balanced diet and staff knew what people liked to eat and drink.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported

this practice.

Staff felt appreciated and enjoyed their jobs. They spoke positively about their induction, their training and the ongoing support they received from their managers to carry out their roles.

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 requires improvement (published 30 June 2021). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last three consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to the safety and governance of the service at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.