Archived: The Haven Healthcare Ltd

Updated 3 April 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection site visit took place on 05 and 07 December 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the service is a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that the provider would be in. We visited the office location to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. The inspection was carried out by one inspector and one expert by experience. The expert by experience made phone calls to people to seek their feedback about the service. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection, we looked at all the information we held about the service. This information included the statutory notifications that the service sent to the Care Quality Commission. A notification is information about important events that the service is required to send us by law. Due to technical problems, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually 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 also contacted health and social care professionals involved in people’s support, and the local authority safeguarding team for their feedback about the service.

During the inspection, we spoke with two people and one relative, three members of staff, and the registered manager. We looked at three people’s care records, and five staff records. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service, such as the complaints, accidents and incidents, safeguarding, health and safety, and policies and procedures.

Updated 3 April 2019

This inspection took place on 05 and 07 December 2018 and was announced. The Haven Healthcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides a nursing and personal care to people who, by reasons of old age, illness or disability are unable to provide it for themselves. It provides this service to people in their homes. At the time of the inspection the provider told us they were providing the regulated activity of personal care to only four people.

This service was inspected in January 2013 but did not have people using the service, and remained dormant until October 2018.

At this inspection in December 2018 we found breaches of fundamental standards and regulations. The provider had not acted to make sure medicines were managed safely. We found the provider had not taken action to support people where allegations of abuse were raised and to reduce the risk of similar future incidents. Recruitment practices placed people’s safety at risk. The provider had not completed a risk assessment for every person when they started using the service. Staff did not always attend people’s care calls as required by them.

Staff did not receive appropriate training and support to complete their roles safely. The provider did not ensure the safe assessment and care planning of all people’s individual needs.

People and their relatives told us their privacy was not respected and staff had not acted in accordance with people’s wishes. The provider had not followed their complaints procedure.

The provider did not ensure appropriate systems and processes were in place for the management of risk, safe recruitment of staff, safe management of medicines, staff training and overall governance of the service. The provider lacked oversight, understanding and management of the service and left the people at risk of harm. The provider had not ensured they monitored and analysed early or late visits so patterns could be identified and improvement made. The provider had failed to notify CQC of notifiable events.

There was no system to manage accidents and incidents to reduce the likelihood of them happening again. The provider had not completed health action plans for people who required. The provider did not have systems and procedures to ensure an effective joint-working with other services.

People and their relatives told us their privacy was not respected and staff had not acted in accordance with people’s wishes. The provider had not given consideration for equality and diversity. Staff supported people to eat and drink enough to meet their needs. However, people did not have care plans about their diet and nutritional needs and this required improvement. The provider had involved people and their relatives, where appropriate, in the review of their care.

People gave us a mixed feedback about how their complaints were managed. The provider had a policy and procedures in place to support people with end of life care in line with their wishes.

There were no staff meetings held to share learning, and good practice so staff understood what was expected of them at all levels. The provider had not maintained any records to show that they worked with health and social care professionals and commissioners. Staff described the management of the service positively. The provider had a policy and procedures to work with commissioners, health and care professionals. However, the feedback from commissioners was not positive.

People were protected from the risk of infection. The service had a registered manager in post. 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.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report. Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.