16 June 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Inmind Community Support Services is a domiciliary care service providing personal care for people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 14 people were receiving personal care from the service.
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
Since our last inspection, a number of care and office staff had left at very short notice which resulted in the provider contacting the local authority to arrange for packages of care to be transferred to other care providers. Responsibility was left with the registered manager to fulfil the responsibilities of the vacant office posts. This resulted in a lack of effectiveness in the governance of the service as the registered manager took on additional duties to ensure people’s care needs were met.
Systems were not in place to effectively monitor call delivery times. This resulted in some people experiencing early, late or short calls. Care records did not always hold the most up to date information regarding people and their care needs. People and relatives raised concerns regarding poor communication with the service.
Staff felt supported by the registered manager but had not received regular supervision or had their competencies assessed for some time.
There was no evidence the provider had actively sought feedback from people who used the service to help them monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service, and make changes in response to people’s feedback.
People felt safe when supported by staff in their own home . They were supported by a consistent group of staff who had been recruited safely and were aware of their care needs.
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 were aware of the latest government guidance regarding infection prevention control and had access to plentiful supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE.)
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 good (published 26 July 2021).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing levels and the timings of calls. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Inmind Community Support Services Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.
We have identified breaches in relation to good governance at this inspection.
At our last inspection of the service in June 2021, it was agreed the provider could apply to have the conditions on their registration removed, as enough improvement had been seen in the governance of the service. However, the provider continued to submit monthly reports and did not apply to remove those conditions. At this inspection, we were not assured regarding the effectiveness of the governance systems in place. We therefore advised the provider that a decision has been made to keep the conditions in place to obtain assurances that governance systems would be improved. The provider will continue to submit monthly reports to provide evidence of this.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.