Care With Kindness Limited

Care with Kindness Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection they were providing a personal care service to 16 people.

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. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People had care plans in place, however, these did not include clear information to guide staff to provide care and support. Not all risks had been assessed and some individual risks to people were not thoroughly assessed and mitigated. Although staff in general knew how to support people safely, they did not always have detailed guidance to ensure people received safe care at all times. We did not find that this had a negative impact on the care people received, but we have identified these as areas of practice that need to improve.

Recruitment procedures were not always robust, and improvements were needed to ensure staff received training and appropriate assessments of their competence to fulfil their role.

Medicines were not always managed safely, and best practice guidance was not always being followed in relation to a clinical task delegated by a health professional.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Some staff had not received training in safeguarding vulnerable adults.

Quality assurance systems were not fully effective and did not address the shortfalls we found during our inspection. We found no evidence that people were harmed but these shortfalls put them at increased risk. We discussed these concerns with the nominated individual and registered manager who were responsive to feedback and started making changes to improve the service.

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.

The support people received was person centred. Staff protected and respected people's privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. People told us they received care by staff who were “Courteous and polite” and “Kind and compassionate.”

Throughout the inspection we observed staff interacting with people in a caring and considerate way. People and relatives were complimentary about the care and support they received and spoke positively about the management of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 31 March 2022 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to risk management, staff training and support, medicines and governance at this inspection.

We have also made recommendations in relation to recruitment and consent.

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 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.