Background to this inspection
Updated
15 March 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
This inspection was carried out by one 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.
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 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be available to support the inspection when we visited.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used this information to plan our inspection.
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.
During the inspection
We spoke with 7 family members about their experience of the care provided to their relatives. We also spoke with the registered manager, care co-ordinator and 3 staff members who provided care to people.
We reviewed a range of records. This included people's care plans and risk assessments, medicines management procedures and staff files in relation to training and recruitment data. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and policies were also reviewed.
Updated
15 March 2023
About the service
Happy Family Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. This service specialises in supporting people of South Asian ethnicity. At the time of the inspection, 13 people were receiving support from this provider.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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
We found evidence during our inspection of multiple breaches of regulation and the need for this provider to make improvements.
Individual and environmental risks to people were not always assessed as necessary making sure staff supported people safely. Systems and processes in place did not ensure that staff regularly received one to one meetings with their line manager and had been appropriately observed in their job. Training provided for staff were not meeting their role expectations. MCA principles were not always appropriately applied in practice to support people in the decision making process. There was a lack of quality assurance processes in place to ensure effective care delivery.
We were not assured that systems and processes in place were safeguarding people as necessary. Safe medicines management practices were not always followed by the provider. The managers of the service were not always clear about their role responsibilities. We made recommendations about this.
Family members felt that the care provided for people was good and that staff adhered to people's wishes and choices with respect. They told us that staff attended the visits as and when necessary.
Staff were subject to pre-employment checks before they started working with people. The provider followed current best practice guidelines regarding the prevention and control of infection. Staff supported people with their healthcare needs when they needed such assistance. Initial assessments were carried out by the provider making sure they were able to support people effectively.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last overall rating for this service was requires improvement (published 20/08/2021). At this inspection the overall rating remained the same.
Why we inspected
We carried out the inspection to check whether the provider had embedded and sustained improvements that we had noted at our previous inspection.
We did not inspect the key questions of caring and responsive. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Happy Family Care Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and recommendations
We identified four breaches in relation to safe care, staffing, need for consent and governance systems. We also recommended the provider to review their processes in place in relation to safeguarding of people, medicines and management of the service making sure they effectively monitored the quality and safety of the care people received.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.