Archived: Youus Ltd

Updated 29 December 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.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of 4 inspectors and 2 Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Youus Ltd provides personal care to people living in their own houses.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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 because the service provides care to people in their own homes and we wanted to make sure that management were available on the day of the inspection site visit.

Inspection activity started on 6 November 2023 and ended on 29 November 2023. We visited the office location on 6 and 15 November 2023 to see the registered manager and review records related to the service.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. 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 used all this information to plan our inspection

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records related to 22 people’s care and support. This included people’s care plans, risk assessments and medicines records. We looked at 26 staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included quality assurance records, minutes of staff meetings and a range of policies and procedures.

We spoke with 18 people who received care from the service and 19 family members. We also spoke with 32 staff members. This included the registered manager and care staff.

Updated 29 December 2023

Youus Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The services they provide include personal care, housework and medicines support. At the time of our inspection the service was providing personal care and support to a total of 89 people. 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:

Auditing systems in place were not sufficiently robust or effective in maintaining oversight of the safety and quality of the service. We have found a breach of regulation in respect of this.

Risk assessments were in place where risks to people had been identified. However, we noted that in some instances the information recorded in these was limited and did not always include instructions for staff about how to mitigate associated risks. We have made a recommendation in relation to this.

Feedback from people and family members indicated that they were not all given an opportunity to provide feedback in respect of the care and support they received. We have made a recommendation to relation to this.

Policies and systems were in place to help ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse.

Appropriate medicines management systems were in place. Medicines were managed safely.

Recruitment checks were carried out to help ensure care staff assessed as safe to work with people using the service, were employed.

Staff followed infection prevention and control guidance to minimise risks related to the spread of infection.

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.

Care plans were up to date and reviewed on a regular basis. Care staff supported people in line with their wishes.

The provider monitored aspects of the quality of the services through audits and checks.

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 the service was good (11 July 2022).

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement and recommendations

We have identified 1 breach of regulation in relation to governance and 2 recommendations in relation to risk assessments and quality assurance.

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.