District Care

District Care is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people living in their own homes. The service provides support to adults some of whom may be living with dementia, a physical disability or a sensory impairment. At the time of our inspection there were 40 people using the service.

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

People and relatives were complimentary about their experience with District Care and would recommend using the service. A relative said, “I would definitely recommend. They are a very friendly team, on the ball and efficient.”

People were supported by a staff team who were safely recruited and knew how to protect them from potential harm. People received their care visits at the times they expected, for the length of time agreed, and from staff they knew.

Risks to people had been assessed and were managed safely. Care plans had been developed from an initial care needs assessments. People and relatives told us they were involved in care planning.

Staff had training to do their job and had support from their managers when they needed it. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs.

People received their medicines as prescribed. Staff adhered to infection prevention and control procedures in line with legislative requirements and recognised best practice guidelines.

Staff understood the importance of gaining consent from people and ensured people's privacy and dignity was respected.

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.

People and relatives told us most staff were kind and caring. People were treated with respect and dignity. Staff promoted people's independence when it was appropriate.

People and relatives described being able to raise any issues with the staff and management team and were confident these would be addressed.

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 requires improvement (published 30 January 2023).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced inspection of this service on 10 November 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve the safety, effectiveness and management of the service.

We undertook this comprehensive inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements.

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

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

District Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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. At the time of our inspection there were 47 people receiving personal care from the service.

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

People told us they felt safe when carers visited them and felt they could rely on the service to keep them safe. However, the service had not always carried out risk assessments where it would be appropriate and there was not always care planning in place for known risks.

People told us that staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and acted on their wishes. However, the service had not carried out assessments of people’s capacity to make decisions where this would have been appropriate. The manager told us they had not been doing these and did not have an understanding of when this would have been required.

Records completed by staff demonstrated that people’s visits were being regularly cut short and this had not been identified by the service. It was unclear whether this had any direct impact on the care delivered but people were not consistently receiving the service which had been commissioned.

Whilst there was a quality assurance system in place, this had not been effective in identifying the shortfalls we found. There were gaps in the registered managers knowledge around risk assessment and management and requirements under the Mental Capacity Act.

People told us they benefitted from having regular carers they knew well, and that the carers always arrived to support them. People told us staff were kind, caring and thoughtful.

Staff were recruited safely and had appropriate training for the role.

Medicines were administered, managed and monitored safely.

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 rating for this service was good (published 5 July 2019).

Why we inspected

We carried out this inspection in response to information of concern received.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe, Effective and Well Led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full 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.