TLC Homecare Limited

Updated 29 November 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. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Act.

Inspection team

This inspection was completed by three inspectors, an assistant inspector and an Expert 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

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

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 CQC 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 not a registered manager in post. The provider was in the process of recruiting a new manager.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the provider would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 15 November 2022 and ended on 16 November 2022. We spoke with people who used the service over the telephone on 15 November 2022. We visited the service’s office and spoke with staff and relatives of people who used the service over the telephone on 16 November 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority, professionals who work with the service and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. 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 spoke with 12 people who used the service and 13 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 16 members of staff. This included the operations manager, office staff and care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people’s care records and medication records. We looked at 5 staff files in relation to recruitment and support. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 29 November 2022

About the service

TLC Homecare Limited is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to adults with a range of care and support needs, including older people and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 168 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received the regulated activity of personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do receive personal care we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection there were 131 people receiving personal care from the service.

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

People felt safe when receiving support from the service. Risks to people were assessed and managed well. Staff understood their responsibility to safeguard vulnerable people from abuse. People received safe and effective support with their medicines. There were suitable systems in place to control the spread of infections.

People were supported by staff they were familiar with and staff turned up to their care visits on time. People were complimentary about the service and the care they received. Staff were recruited safely to ensure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people. The provider used a variety of approaches to proactively recruit new staff, to ensure the service had enough staff available to meet people’s needs.

The provider promoted a person-centred, caring culture. They monitored the service to help ensure it provided safe, high-quality care. People, their relatives and staff had opportunities to provide feedback about the service. Staff were well-supported in their roles and they enjoyed their jobs. The provider had close links with other social care professionals and community health services so they could work in partnership with these organisations.

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 17 April 2019) and we identified a breach of regulation at that inspection. We subsequently completed a targeted inspection in November 2020. We found the service had improved and the provider was no longer in breach of any regulations, however, we did not re-rate the service at that time.

At this inspection we found the improvements made to the service had been sustained. The rating for this service has therefore improved to good.

Why we inspected

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

This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions, ‘is the service safe?’ and ‘is the service well-led?’. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for TLC Homecare Limited 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.