The Care Quality Commission
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  • Homecare service

Archived: VitalCare Services Limited

Overall: Inadequate read more about inspection ratings

31A Boston Road, Hanwell, London, W7 3SH (020) 8840 3600

Provided and run by:
VitalCare Services Limited

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile

All Inspections

11 and 12 December 2014

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We undertook an announced inspection of VitalCare Services Limited Domiciliary Care Agency (DCA) on 11 and 12 December 2014. We told the provider we would be inspecting two days prior to our inspection because they are a small domiciliary care provider and we needed to make sure they would be in when we inspected.

VitalCare Services Limited provided personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection ten people were receiving a personal care service with seven people who usually received care being in hospital. All the people receiving care had their care purchased by the local authority.

The service did not have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run. We have not received an application for a registered manager since the inspection.

The provider did not meet all of the regulations we inspected against at our last inspection on 5 November 2013. We found the provider was not meeting the legal requirements in relation to having appropriate systems in place for recruitment and monitoring the quality of care provided.

Staff knew which external organisations to contact if they had any concerns relating to the care being provided.

People and relatives were happy with the staff that currently visited them. They also felt their privacy and dignity was respected by staff who provided their care. Staff understood how to maintain a person’s privacy and dignity whilst providing personal care.

Staff understood the terms equality and diversity and how that influenced the way they provided care and support.

Staff felt they received encouragement from the senior staff, there was good communication and the culture of service was very positive.

We found a number of breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These related to management of risk, administration of medicines, Mental Capacity Act (2005), nutrition, involvement in care plans, staff training and support and monitoring the quality of the service. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.

5 November 2013

During a routine inspection

During our inspection we spoke with five people who use the service and/or their representatives and seven care workers. When we visited the agency office we met with the owner, manager and office based staff. At the time of our inspection the provider did not have a registered manager in post.

The people who use the service and their relatives said that the staff were committed in their work and generally respectful towards the people who use the service. Comments we received from some people were 'the care workers are lovely and really respectful' and 'my care worker is kind, caring and never makes me feel rushed'. However, some people said that the care workers did not talk with them whilst they carried out the tasks they needed support with.

The care workers demonstrated an understanding of how to recognise abuse and the actions they needed to take to report this and ensure it was investigated.

Training and support was provided to care workers to ensure that they could meet people's needs safely.

However, we found that people were put at risk where the provider did not carry out robust checks prior to the recruitment of new care workers. There were no systems to routinely assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.

11 May 2012

During a routine inspection

We found that people who use the service expressed their views and were involved in making decisions about their care and treatment. One person who used the service indicated that they were involved in the care planning process and in making decisions about their care. They also confirmed that their care plans had been discussed with them by the manager. We saw that they were able to communicate their choices to staff who took this into consideration.

One person indicated that they were very satisfied with the care and support they received. They informed us that staff were appropriately skilled and experienced to care for and support them.

People who use the service and their representatives were asked for their views about their care and support and they were acted on. A person confirmed they were visited by the manager who asked their views about the quality of services they received.