Operations Office

Updated 27 September 2022

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.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage 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.

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

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 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 used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We also reviewed the information we already held about the service. This included their registration report and notifications. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection.

During the inspection, we spoke with the registered manager. We reviewed documents and records that related to people’s care and the management of the service.

We reviewed three staff files, which included pre-employment checks and three care plans, which included peoples support needs. We looked at other documents such as and training records.

We also spoke to one relative of people that received personal care and one staff member. We were unable to speak to people as they were not able to talk to us over the telephone.

Updated 27 September 2022

About the service

Operations Office is a domiciliary care agency and is based in the London Borough of Havering. The service provides personal care to people in their own homes. 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.

At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting three people with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service

Not all staff had received effective training to support people safely. People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. The policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.

Robust quality assurance systems were not in place to ensure shortfalls were identified. Quality monitoring systems were not in place to obtain feedback from people to make improvements.

Risks were identified and were assessed to ensure people received safe care. People told us they felt safe when receiving support from staff. Staff were aware of how to safeguard people from abuse. Systems were in place to ensure staff attended calls on time. Systems were in place to prevent and minimise the spread of infections when supporting people. Pre-employment checks had been carried out to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

People received care from staff who were caring and had a good relationship with them. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. People were encouraged to be independent and to carry out tasks without support.

Care plans were person centred. Care plans had been reviewed regularly to ensure they were accurate. Systems were in place to manage complaints and people’s communication needs were 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 27 July 2021 and this was the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on when the service registered with us.

Follow up

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