Aroma Care People Ltd

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.

Aroma Care People is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to 84 people at the time of our inspection. The service supports adults and children who live in Coventry and Warwickshire and who have a range of health care needs. 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 they were provided with safe care and treatment. Risks to people's health had been identified, assessed and monitored to ensure people received safe care and treatment. Records contained guidance for staff on how to manage risks to keep people safe. Care staff knew about people’s individual risks and how to minimise these. Where necessary, people received their medicines as prescribed. Care staff understand their role and responsibilities to promote good infection prevention and control and maintained high standards of cleanliness and hygiene.

The provider had a robust recruitment process which prevented unsuitable care staff from working with vulnerable adults. People told us care staff were always on time and stayed for the full length of allocated time. People received care from reliable and consistent care staff.

The registered manager completed regular checks to ensure the service was meeting their legal requirements. This included checks on call times, people’s health care and the quality of care provided. Where improvements were identified, action had been taken. People and relatives knew how to provide their views of the care they received and were confident they would be listened too. Staff provided positive feedback about the management of the service.

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 17 October 2019).

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 17 September 2019 and we identified improvements were needed.

We undertook this focused inspection to check improvements had been made and sustained. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. Although we found improvements had been made the overall rating for the service has remained the same.

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

Aroma Care People Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service supported 100 people. 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 felt safe with the care staff who visited them, and risks associated with people’s care had been assessed. Staff knew how to keep people safe and protect them from avoidable harm. Procedures for managing medicines and recruitment of staff required improvement to ensure people remained safe and well.

There were enough staff to provide the care and support people required. However, some people did not receive their visits at the times expected and the procedure for monitoring staff arrived at people’s homes required improvement.

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. However, the procedure to assess people’s capacity to make decisions was not always clear or completed accurately.

Staff received training to be effective in their roles, but it was not clear from training records if staff new to care had completed the recommended training and competencies. Where required, people were supported with their nutritional needs.

People described staff as kind and caring. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity and supported people to maintain independence. People felt involved in their care and made decisions about their care and support.

Staff knew people well and people received care that met their needs. Care plans provided staff with enough information about what people required on each call, but plans were not always personalised. People knew how to complain, however how complaints were recorded and managed required improvement.

There were quality monitoring systems to enable the provider to have oversight of the service, but these had not always been implemented consistently. Some quality assurance processes and records management required improvement. The provider had an action plan and had implemented some initiatives to improve the service.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was good (published on 7 July 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating. We also needed to review concerns received about the standard of service provided to people, which we had referred to the local authority and to the provider to investigate. The overall rating for the service has changed to requires improvement.

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

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

Aroma Care People Ltd. is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service supported 45 people with personal care and employed 17 care staff.

The office visit took place on 13 June 2017 and was announced. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange to be there and for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

A requirement of the provider’s registration is that they have a registered manager. There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was also the provider of the service.

People said they felt safe using the service and staff understood how to keep people safe and protect people from abuse. There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety. These included procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care and for managing people’s medicines safely. The suitability of staff was checked during recruitment procedures to make sure, as far as possible, they were safe to work with people who used the service.

The managers and staff followed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Staff respected decisions people made about their care and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care.

There were enough staff to provide the care and support people required. People told us staff were friendly and caring and had the right skills to provide the care they required. Staff received an induction when they started working for the service and completed training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively.

People said staff arrived around the time expected and stayed long enough to provide the care they required. People said they received care from staff they knew. Care staff understood people’s needs and abilities as they visited the same people regularly and had time to get to know people and read their care plans. Care plans provided guidance for staff about people’s care needs and instructions of what they needed to do on each call.

Staff felt supported to do their work effectively and said the managers were approachable and knowledgeable. There was an ‘out of hours’ on call system, which ensured management support and advice was always available for staff.

People knew how to complain and information about making a complaint was available for people. People and staff said they could raise any concerns or issues with the management team, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.

The provider’s quality monitoring system included asking people for their views about the quality of the service. This was through telephone conversations, visits to review people’s care and satisfaction questionnaires. The management team checked people received the care they needed by reviewing people’s care records and through feedback from people and staff. There was a programme of other checks and audits which the provider used to monitor and improve the service.