Lola Care

Updated 27 August 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered manager was the director of the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service a two days’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 5 July 2021 and ended on 16 July 2021. We visited the office location on 7 July and 13 July 2021.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we requested a number of records to review before we visited the office. These included a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, quality monitoring and staff training. We reviewed these before visiting the office. We also contacted people and their relatives to give them opportunities to share feedback with us. We spoke with six people who use the service and four people’s relatives. We also contacted all of the eight staff and one volunteer and received feedback from six of them. We contacted six health and social care professionals who have people they support being supported by Lola Care and received feedback from two of them.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it was registered. 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 visited the office and spoke with the Director who is also the registered manager and the operations manager.

We reviewed further records. This included a person’s care folder and staff recruitment documentation on the provider’s computerised system and staff schedule allocation.

After the inspection

We spoke with two further relatives of people being supported by Lola Care.

Updated 27 August 2021

About the service

Lola Care is an agency which provides personal care to people living in their own homes in Tiverton and surrounding villages. At the time of the inspection the agency was providing care to ten 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

People were protected from abuse. Staff received training in safeguarding, which helped them to recognise the signs of abuse and actions to take in response.

People told us they felt very safe with the staff who supported them.

People received support from a regular staff team and staff were recruited safely. Staff were trained to administer medicines safely. Competency checks had been completed to ensure staff were following safe medicine practices.

Staff had received training in infection control and demonstrated an understanding of what personal protective equipment (PPE) should be used when supporting people. People told us that staff wore PPE whilst spending time in their homes.

People's care needs were initially assessed at a ‘care consultation’ before they started to use the service and care plans were completed prior to support commencing.

Staff supported people with their eating, drinking and to access healthcare support.

People were cared for by staff with sincerity, kindness and compassion. Staff supported people in a dignified and respectful way and their independence was promoted. Their care was planned in an inclusive and caring way, respecting their equality and diversity and human rights.

Staff often went over and above their job role to support people and also on numerous occasions took special treats to make people happy.

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.

The provider had a clear complaints policy in place which explained how to make a complaint and what action would be taken by the management to address any concerns and resolve them. The registered manager said they had not received any formal complaints but where a relative had raised concerns there were clear audit trails of actions they had taken.

People benefited from a staff team who were passionate about their jobs and proud to work for the organisation.

People and their relatives were able to give feedback about their care in a variety of ways. Examples included, through care reviews, periodic calls and surveys.

The provider had systems and processes in place to retain oversight of people's care and ensure good standards were consistently met.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 3 July 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out due to the length of time the provider had been registered with CQC without receiving a formal rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.