17 November 2021
During an inspection looking at part of 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.