Mayday Homecare Bureau

Updated 5 August 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and three 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

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

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. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 25th May and ended on 18th June 2021. We visited the office location on 25th May 2021.

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 and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 12 people and 16 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 14 staff including the nominated individual, the registered manager, the care manager, senior care staff and carers. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

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

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, quality assurance records, daily records and records relating to risk management. We spoke with two professionals who have regular contact with the service.

Updated 5 August 2021

About the service

Mayday Homecare is a Domiciliary Care Agency (DCA) providing a service to older and younger adults, some of whom may have dementia, with varying levels of personal care needs. Staff provided care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection, the service was supporting 530 people. 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 and what we found

People and relatives reported feeling safe and cared for by 'polite', 'respectful' and 'caring' staff. Some people told us their call times had been irregular, which sometimes impacted on their ‘timed medication’. Some staff said they didn’t always have enough time to travel between their calls.

We discussed this with the management team, who implemented new systems to improve these issues.

We have made two recommendations that the provider continues to embed these new systems.

Risks to people’s safety were assessed and staff had clear guidance on how best to support people. Staff had a good understanding of how to keep people safe and follow safeguarding processes. Recruitment systems were robust and staff received appropriate training.

The provider had effective auditing and oversight systems in place. People and relatives knew who to contact if they had any concerns. Care records evidenced a person-centred culture and staff understood how to support people as individuals and with any cultural needs. Staff felt supported by the management team. The provider informed the relevant bodies and people when things went wrong.

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 good (published 24/08/2019)

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to communication between management, people and relatives and staffing levels. We also received concerns relating to the management of medicines, infection control practice and people not being involved in the setting up of initial care plans and assessments. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Mayday Homecare on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.