Archived: The Caring Company

A Caring Company is a domiciliary care service providing personal care and support to 27 people in their own homes.

The service had 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.

People and their relatives told us that they received safe care, and staff understood the process to follow to protect people from risk of abuse. However the provider did not always follow its own recruitment policy to make sure that the correct checks had been carried out for prospective employees. This meant that people were put at risk of receiving care and support from staff who may not have had the appropriate character or experience. Some risk assessments were carried out, but these needed to be broader in their depth and scope to identify and safely manage the risks to people.

People told us that they received their medicines on time from staff who had received the appropriate training, but medicines administration record (MAR) charts were not always completed correctly to account for this. People had their dietary and healthcare needs identified and the service worked with external professionals to support people with any related conditions or changes to their needs. People had care plans in place which were person-centred and regularly reviewed with involvement from people and their relatives.

People told us that they consented to receiving their care from the service and staff had received training to understand the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Staff received a range of additional training which enabled them to carry out their duties effectively. They were supported through a program of supervision and appraisal and were able to contribute to the development of the service through team meetings. Staff were usually able to attend to people’s visits on time and stay for the correct duration, although some people raised concerns about the way in which rotas were managed.

There were quality monitoring processes in place for identifying improvements that needed to be made, however these were not robust enough to identify the issues we found during the inspection. Some areas of people’s support such as the management of medicines were not audited and so errors or omissions were not being rectified. People, their relatives and staff were positive about the support they received from the registered manager. Questionnaires and surveys were sent out regularly to ask for people’s views and comments about the quality of the care provided.

During this inspection we found that improvements had been made and the provider was compliant.

We spoke with the manager and four members of staff. We also spoke with four people using the service and one relative. We found that overall people were satisfied with the service and told us that communication with the office had improved.

People told us that their care plans had been reviewed to make sure their current needs were being met and they were receiving the care they needed.

We found that a new staff training programme including induction training had been reviewed and implemented. The training plan was on-going and staff had completed training in moving and handling and various other core subjects. Staff had been supervised and appraised to make sure they had the skills to carry out their role. .

The service had processes in place to monitor the quality of care it provided, and to identify and respond to any areas of concern. People said that they would talk to the registered manager or staff if they had a complaint and they were confident that action would be taken to resolve their issues.

People who used the service told us their privacy and dignity was respected and care staff were polite. They said they were encouraged to participate in making decisions relating to their care and treatment.

We found that people's care plans had not been reviewed. Plans did not contain sufficient information to manage risks and ensure people received the care they needed as safely as possible.

People using the service said that the care staff were reliable during the week. However, they said that improvements were required to the weekend service to make sure they received their service at the agreed time.

People told us that some of the new staff the service had employed did not have the training, skills and experience to meet their care needs. Other people said that their care staff who had provided their service for some time were well trained and had the skills to do their jobs well.

Systems were in place to monitor the service that people received, however some people were not confident that the managers used their feedback to improve the service.