Mathalie Care Services Limited

Mathalie Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. The domiciliary care agency provides support to adults with varied needs. At the time of inspection, the service supported 3 people with their personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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 expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

The provider ensured staff received the training and supervision they required to provide them with the skills and knowledge they required to carry out their roles.

Relatives told us their loved ones 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 provider had maintained records in relation to quality assurance of the service. People’s relatives confirmed they had been asked for their views of the service. The registered manager informed us the service had implemented a new electronic monitoring system and records of quality assurance activities would be recorded on this in the future.

Right Care:

People’s care plans and risk assessments had been reviewed and updated where appropriate. Guidance had been provided for staff on how to effectively support people when delivering care and support.

The provider had made improvements to their medicines administration procedures. The records we saw showed medicines had been administered and recorded appropriately.

Staff described how they understood people’s care needs and preferences. People’s relatives told us staff provided care and support in a respectful and professional way.

Right Culture:

People’s relatives and staff spoke positively about the management of the service.

Staff and people’s relatives confirmed they received information in a timely manner.

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 (publication date to be confirmed)

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

This service has been in Special Measures since 12 September 2022. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Mathalie Care Services Limited (previously known as The Havelock Hub) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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

Mathalie Care Services is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. The domiciliary care agency provides support to adults with varied needs. At the time of inspection, the service supported 3 people with their personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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 expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

The provider had failed to maintain records in relation to quality assurance of the service. They had failed to identify and address the concerns we found at this inspection.

The provider had made improvements to staff training. A training programme was in place and staff had undertaken several training modules. However, the provider’s training records were incomplete and did not show if staff had completed some mandatory training.

Although staff told us they met regularly with the registered manager on a one-to-one basis, records had not been kept of these meetings. Following this inspection, the registered manager sent the CQC copies of meetings, but these were dated after the inspection.

Relatives told us their loved ones 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. However, although the policies and systems in the service supported this, staff members had not received training in the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Right Care:

Although the provider had made improvements to their medicines administration procedures, the records did not show which staff member had supported people with their medicines on any given day.

People’s care plans and risk assessments did not always include guidance for staff on how to effectively support people when delivering care and support. People’s care plans were not signed or dated so we could not be sure if these were up-to date.

Staff described how they understood people’s care needs and preferences. People’s relatives told us staff provided care and support in a respectful and professional way.

Right Culture:

People’s relatives and staff spoke positively about the management of the service. However, the provider had failed to record any interactions with people, their relatives and staff.

There were no records of any quality assurance monitoring which had taken place. Although the registered manager provided The CQC with records of meetings with staff that had taken place after this inspection, no records of engagement or satisfaction meetings with people and their relatives were made available to us.

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 inadequate (published 12 September 2022).

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 the provider remained in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. The delay in publishing this report was mainly due to CQC’s internal quality assurance processes.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Mathalie Care Services (previously known as The Havelock Hub) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to medicines records, people’s risk assessments, care plans, staff support and supervision and the provider’s quality assurance systems. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

We have made a recommendation in relation to staff training.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’. However, we are placing the service in 'special measures'. We do this when services have been rated as 'Inadequate' in any Key Question over two consecutive comprehensive inspections. The ‘Inadequate’ rating does not need to be in the same question at each of these inspections for us to place services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

The Havelock Hub is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. The domiciliary care agency provides support to adults with varied needs. At the time of inspection, staff assisted three people with their personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

The provider did not ensure systems were in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided in the carrying on of the regulated activity personal care.

People were not protected from harm because the provider did not carry out robust staff recruitment and selection processes that helped ensure only suitable staff were employed to provide people with care and support.

There were no records that showed the provider had assessed the competency of staff to administer medicines to people safely.

People’s care plans and risk assessments lacked detailed step by step guidance that showed any risks were understood and managed safely, and they received personalised safe and effective care.

The provider did not ensure that staff had received a comprehensive induction. The provider did not ensure people were supported by staff that had the right skills and training.

Due to people’s needs they were unable to speak with us, so we spoke with their relatives who told us they were satisfied with the care people received from The Havelock Hub.

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 06 August 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement and Recommendations

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 five breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, medicines, personalised care, recruitment and good governance at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Full information about CQC's regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Special Measures: The overall rating for this service is 'Inadequate' and the service is therefore in 'special measures'. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider's registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it. And it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.