• Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Kent Social Care Professionals Domiciliary Service

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

2 Woodville Road, Maidstone, ME15 7BS (01622) 764014

Provided and run by:
Kent Social Care Professionals Limited

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 21 October 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

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors and two Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

Inspection activity started on 31 August 2021 and ended on 02 September 2021. We visited the office location on 31 August 2021.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was in the process of completing the Provider Information Return at the time of our 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. Therefore, we were unable to take this into account when making our judgements in this report. We reviewed information we had received since the last inspection. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with seventeen people who used the service and eighteen relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine members of staff including the registered manager, service delivery manager, co-ordinator and care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, reports, policies and procedures were reviewed.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 21 October 2021

About the service

Kent Social Care Professionals Domiciliary Service is a care at home service providing personal care to 230 people within their own homes, at the time of the inspection.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

Risks to people were not always recorded in their risk assessments or care plans and these records were not always personalised. This put people at potential risk of harm and at risk of receiving inconsistent care. We have made a recommendation in this area.

Feedback from people about staff deployment from the service was negative. People told us calls were often late and sometimes missed. People did not always receive information about this from the office which impacted on people emotionally and physically. A relative told us, “I would say there is a shortage of staff, there are delays in the morning visit. Today carers didn’t get [loved one] up till 11.30am. The target time is 9.00am... It impacts on [loved one’s] diet, like a late breakfast and [they] might not then eat lunch.”

Accidents and incidents were not consistently recorded. Despite this, where accidents or incidents were recorded, action was taken to make people safe and lessons were shared.

Staffing level challenges had had an impact on people receiving timely support and the management of the service. The provider was in the process of implementing new strategies at the time of our inspection to try and increase recruitment and continued to do so following the inspection.

Audits had not taken place regularly in the months prior to the inspection. Risk assessments and care plans were not up to date and did not reflect the care that people were currently receiving. Actions were not consistently taken from the audits that had previously been completed. We did not see evidence of trends analysis to further aid learning and drive improvements.

Feedback from people was negative about communication from the office. Although, staff said they received necessary updates from the office and a recent survey had been sent out to people at the time of our inspection.

Feedback from people about the care they received during visits, from regular carers, was positive. People told us they felt safe. One person said, “I have a trio of lovely [carers] who look after me and I trust them with my life.” Staff knew the signs and symptoms of abuse and how to report any concerns. Safeguarding concerns were reported to external agencies.

Risks from the spread of infections such as COVID-19 had been considered. Staff knew how to prevent the spread of infections for example by wearing personal protective equipment.

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 and systems in the service supported this practice.

There was no one receiving end of life care at the time of the inspection, however staff had received training regarding care at the end of people’s lives and preferences around this were included in care planning.

The service worked in partnership with healthcare professionals and other external agencies.

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 26 July 2018).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing levels, the quality of care provided and the management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led. We carried out a targeted inspection in the key question responsive to look at concerns in relation to end of life care.

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.

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

The provider had been aware of the concerns the inspection identified prior to the site visit. They had a plan to increase recruitment which would allow for better service delivery. This was being implemented during our inspection and therefore we cannot comment on the effectiveness of these plans.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service

We have identified breaches in relation to ineffective staff deployment and ineffective quality assurance systems and processes at this inspection.

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