Oxford Branch

Updated 8 February 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

This was a targeted inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Warning Notice in relation to Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 on a concern we had about the safety of the service.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Kwikfix is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from partner agencies and professionals. On-going monitoring such as information received. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the operations manager and the registered manager. We also sought the views of staff who worked at the service. We reviewed care plans and a range of records related to the management of the service including policies and procedures, audits and risk assessments.

After the inspection

Following the inspection we had a discussion with the local authority’s quality team who plan to work with the service, to support them with their ongoing improvement.

Updated 8 February 2023

About the service

Kwikfix Recruitment Services Limited Oxford Branch is a domiciliary care service providing care to people in their own homes. The service provides support for adults over and under the age of 65, people with dementia, learning disabilities and physical disabilities.

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

This was a targeted inspection that followed up the warning notice served at the previous inspection around the safety of the service.

We use targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

The provider had made some improvements in relation to risk assessment, staff knowledge and training and guidance.. However, we found improvements were still required in relation to safe medicines management and learning from incidents and accidents.

Systems to ensure the safe managements of medicines were still not fully effective in ensuring good standards of care were delivered. People’s medicines support needs had not been adequately reviewed or updated since the last inspection.

People’s care plans had not been reviewed in order to asses people’s risks and needs and document the support people required. Some of the checks and changes identified as being complete within the service’s action plan had yet to be updated or implemented.

Since the last inspection, the service had ensured; staff competencies were updated, further training was completed, and spot checks were carried out in order to ensure safe practice. Documentation had also been provided to staff to ensure they understood one person’s support needs, and the risk associated with this.

Staff had a good understanding of people’s needs and the support they required.

Following the last inspection the provider sent an action plan detailing how they would meet the warning notice. Not all of these actions had been completed at this inspection, which indicated further concerns about the effectiveness of the provider’s quality assurance and governance systems. During the last inspection, we found the provider was in breach regulation 17, good governance, this was documented within the previous report.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

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 (published 21 October 2022).

At the last inspection we served a warning notice around safe care and treatment. At this inspection we found that some improvements had been made. Therefore, the provider had partially met the warning notice, however remained in breach of regulations.

The provider remained in breach of regulations around safe care and treatment as further improvements were required and needed embedding into practice. This was a continued breach of regulation 12(1) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014

Why we inspected

We undertook this targeted inspection to check whether the warning notice we previously served in relation to Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.

Enforcement and Recommendations

The provider remains in breach of regulations found at the last inspection. These relate to keeping people safe from potential abuse, assessing risks and needs and mitigating risks to people.

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.

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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, on our website at www.cqc.org.uk