Sevacare - Hall Green

Updated 25 December 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 completed by one inspector and one assistant inspector. An Expert by Experience also spoke with people and relatives on the telephone. 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. It also provides care and support to people living in specialist 'extra care' housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought or rented and is the occupant's own home. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people's personal care

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’s representative would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 15 November 2021 and ended on 26 November 2021. We visited the office location on 17 November 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it’s registration. We sought feedback from the local authority. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account in making our judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

We spoke with eleven people who used the service and with seventeen relatives of people using the service on the telephone about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with sixteen members of staff including the registered manager, regional manager, care co-ordinators and care workers. We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff 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.

Updated 25 December 2021

About the service

Sevacare - Hall Green is a domiciliary care service which provides care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 280 people.

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

The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of care. However, these had not always been effective.

In recent months some people had experienced missed calls. Some of the missed calls were as a result of office staff not correctly allocating calls on the provider’s system. Action had been taken to reduce the risk of re-occurrence. The majority of people told us their care calls were usually on time and if they were going to be late, they were informed. Four people raised that their call times were not always consistent.

The majority of staff took regular COVID-19 tests to ensure they were free from the virus they could pass on to people they supported. Enough personal protective equipment (PPE) was made available for staff who told us they wore and changed this for every call, they had received training and additional information about COVID-19 and understood the importance of being fully protected. Relatives told us that staff followed good infection prevention control practices.

Risks associated with people's health and social care needs had been identified and assessed. We saw that most risk assessments contained clear information about key risks for people and guidance on the support they needed. However, in relation to one specific health condition the information for two people lacked detail and in one case was conflicting.

Safe recruitment and selection procedures were in place. People told us that they felt safe when the staff were in their home with them. Staff were trained in administering medicines safely. Competency checks had been completed to ensure staff were following safe practices.

People and relatives told us although they did not know who the registered manager was, they did know some of the office staff who they felt were approachable. Staff found the management team approachable.

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 previously rated Good (report published 11 May 2019).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about missed and short calls, and safeguarding incidents. We undertook a direct monitoring activity which indicated regulatory action was needed. 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.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report.

Follow up

We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.