The Care Company UK Limited

Updated 6 July 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

This inspection was completed by an adult social care inspector, an assistant inspector and an expert by experience whom was experienced in caring for people with learning disabilities, older people and people living with dementia. 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:

The Care Company is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available to facilitate the inspection. We visited the office on 18 March 2019, to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records, policies and procedures. We visited two people who used the service on 19 March 2019 and made telephone calls to people using the service and care staff on 18 and 19 March 2019.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection:

We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We looked at information we held about the service including notifications they had made to us about important events.

We also reviewed all other information sent to us from other stakeholders for example the local authority and members of the public.

We reviewed information provided by completed CQC surveys from people who used the service.

During the inspection:

We spoke to 14 people using service and two relatives; the registered manager/owner, operational manager, training coordinator, care coordinator and seven care staff.

We reviewed five people’s care records.

We reviewed five staff recruitment files.

We reviewed records relating to the management of the service including: accidents, incidents and complaints; audits and quality assurance reports; the service development plan; policies and procedures; training and supervision records of staff.

Updated 6 July 2019

About the service:

The Care Company is a domiciliary care agency based in King’s Lynn, providing personal care to people living in their own homes in King’s Lynn and the surrounding areas.

At the time of this inspection, the service was providing care to 124 people and there were 62 staff.

People’s experience of using this service:

People, and their relatives, were complimentary about the way in which care was delivered. They told us staff were caring and happy in their approach to work, the management was approachable and accessible and that they would recommend the service to others.

People usually received care on time and from carers that they had formed trusting relationships with. People were not always given information in advance about who would be visiting them and thought the provision of rotas would improve the service.

The provider had recently expanded the service. They had ensured they had sufficient staff who were well trained and provided high quality and effective care. Staff told us the provider was a considerate employer and staff retention was good.

The provider had fallen behind with some areas of record keeping and governance, such as care plan reviews and medicines administration audits. However, the provider had already employed additional staff to redress these shortfalls within a short timescale.

The provider completed person centred, outcomes-based assessments and was responsive to changes in needs and issues experienced by people using the service. There was not always appropriate attention to detail in aspects of their risk assessments and recording but this was not found to have impacted significantly on people using the service and the provider made plans to redress the concerns found.

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection, published in August 2016, the service was rated “Good”.

Why we inspected:

This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received, based on their rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people received safe, compassionate, high quality care. Further inspections dates will be planned based on information received and/or our inspection schedule.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk