Archived: Goodhands Commcare Ltd

Updated 23 December 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. The service did not have a registered manager in place. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small and staff are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people there to speak with us.

What we did before the inspection

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

During the inspection

We spoke with the sole director for the service. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. This included speaking to two relatives about their experience of care provided.

Updated 23 December 2020

About the service

Goodhands Commcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency registered to providing personal care. At the time of the inspection three people were receiving care.

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

Medicines were not managed in a safe way. There continued to be no risk assessments about people’s health conditions or concerns even though we specifically wrote about this in our previous inspection report. This meant people were not kept safe as staff did not know about risks to them. There had been one incident since our previous inspection, but it had not been recorded appropriately. Not all staff had completed safeguarding training. Staff recruitment application forms lacked information such as their employment histories. There was little documentation in relation to Covid-19. What there was, was inadequate and the provider was unable to evidence learning around pandemic specific infection control with neither updated risk assessments for people or staff.

Oversight of staff training had been neglected and records were out of date, though these were updated during the inspection. Staff had not completed training the provider deemed mandatory. Staff were relatively new and there was no record of their having been supervised or properly inducted into the service. Daily notes were completed when staff cared for people, however, we found one instance when this had not occurred.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. The provider had completed consent agreements with people but there was a lack of information in people’s care plans about their ability to make choices for themselves. People’s preferences around food and drink were recorded and people were supported by staff to eat, though not all staff had received training in this area which the provider had deemed mandatory.

There were numerous shortfalls in the service the provider had failed to address. Care plans were not up to date and had not been reviewed for six months prior to our inspection. They were updated during the inspection. Quality assurance processes, including audits, surveys and spot checks, were not completed regularly. The provider had told us at our previous inspection they would employ a registered manager and had failed to do so. Meetings had ceased to occur frequently and actions arising from them were not recorded properly with no staff being held responsible for them. The provider had failed to draw up a contingency management plan after being specifically requested to do so and had failed to register their service location correctly. The service had drawn up a service level agreement with another provider so as to evidence their working with others but had not joined any forums or organisations to support innovation at the service and had not recorded details of some health care professionals who supported people using the service.

Relatives told us staff were caring and thoughtful when supporting people. Following our inspection, the provider decided to voluntarily cancel their registration as a health and social care provider and subsequently supported people to transfer their care to other providers.

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating was inadequate (published 01 April 2020) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. The provider failed to complete actions set out in an action plan that we requested after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found only minor improvements had been made and the service remained inadequate.

This service had been in Special Measures since 01 April 2020 and remained so until their registration was cancelled on 19 November 2020.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Enforcement

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report. We will not be pursuing regulatory action as the provider has cancelled their registration.

Follow up

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate.’’ As the service is no longer registered to provide a regulated activity we are not pursuing further enforcement action.