The Care Quality Commission
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Almond Tree Care Ltd

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Humbleyard, The Common, Mulbarton, Norwich, NR14 8AE (01508) 578807

Provided and run by:
Almond Tree Care Ltd

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of assessment: 18 June to 30 June 2025. Almond Tree Care Ltd is a care at home service providing support to older people, younger adults, and people living with dementia, a sensory impairment and/or a physical disability. There were 51 people receiving the regulated activity of personal care at the time of the inspection.

At our previous inspection completed in August 2022, the provider was found to be in breach of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, consent and governance. Improvements were found at this inspection in relation to safe care and treatment and consent and the provider was no longer in breach of these regulations. However, improvements in relation to governance were not found at this inspection and the provider remains in breach of this legal regulation. An additional breach of legal regulation was found in relation to displaying the CQC rating on the provider’s website.

Whilst the care delivery was good and care staff supported people in a compassionate, kind and person-centred manner, the culture within the serve was poor which had impacted on staff wellbeing. Staff told us they did not feel valued or supported and were overworked; they told us they were treated with a lack of respect and compassion. Staff told us they were fearful of raising concerns due to repercussions. A poor working environment had been found at our previous inspection completed in August 2022 and the provider had failed to rectify this meaning the negative culture remained at this inspection.

However, the people who used the service, their relatives and health and social care professionals told us the service, at the point of delivery, was consistently good. People told us they were supported by staff who were invested in them, conscientious and kind. They told us their needs were met in a person-centred manner and the records we viewed confirmed this. We found that improvements had been made in relation to risk management and consent and that people’s needs had been reviewed to ensure the service was meeting them.

We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this inspection.

10 August 2022

During a routine inspection

About the service

Almond Tree Care LTD is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 26 people receiving the regulated activity of ‘personal care’ in their own homes. 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 told us that they were safe and well cared for by the service. Despite this, we found shortfalls in the risk management procedures in place at the service which meant people could be at risk of harm.

There were not always appropriate risk assessments and care plans to guide staff on how to provide care to people in a safe way and meet their needs. Staff did not demonstrate an understanding of the risks to people they cared for.

People did not always have an assessment of their capacity to make decisions where this would have been appropriate. It was unclear if the provider understood when they should carry one out.

The management and oversight of the service was insufficient. Systems were not in place to identify shortfalls we found at the inspection and take action to rectify these.

Medicines had been managed and administered safely and there was a system to oversee their administration.

Staff had been trained and had their competency assessed to ensure training had been effective.

People made positive comments about the staff that provided them with care and said they were kind, caring people.

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

Rating at last inspection

This is the first inspection of this service since it registered with CQC.

Why we inspected

This inspection was brought forward due to concerns about how the service was being managed and delivered.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Follow up

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