Sagecare Fulham

Updated 1 February 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 conducted by two inspectors 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, flats and specialist housing.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. A branch manager was also looking to register.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we requested some information before we visited and to ensure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 21 October 2022. We visited the location’s office on 25 and 26 October 2022.

What we did before the 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 reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with a branch manager, the area manager and the provider's head of quality. We also spoke with a care manager, a field care supervisor, a care coordinator and 2 Electronic Call Monitoring officers and 3 care workers. We reviewed a range of records relating to the management of the service including the recruitment records for 10 staff and the care and risk management plans for 9 people.

After our visits we spoke with 11 people who use the service, 11 relatives of people who use the service and 4 professionals who have worked with the service recently. We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training, procedures and management records.

Updated 1 February 2023

About the service

Sagecare Fulham is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to mostly older people living in their own homes in the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster and Chelsea. It also supports some adults who are living with dementia and adults who have physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection the service was providing care and support to 472 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

We received mixed feedback about the timeliness and duration of people’s care visits.

People’s care plans set out their care needs and preferences and communication support. Sometimes this information was not recorded in a consistent manner.

People told us they felt safe. Staff supported people with their medicines appropriately.

There were procedures for responding to and learning from accidents and incidents.

There were recruitment processes in place to help make sure only suitable staff were employed.

Staff received regular training, supervision and competency checks. This included safeguarding awareness training so staff knew how to report potential abuse concerns.

Staff treated people with dignity and respect and were caring.

The service worked in partnership with other professionals to meet people’s needs and help them to access healthcare services.

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.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and recognise when improvements were required. People and staff were asked to give feedback about 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 and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 6 September 2021). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.