- Homecare service
Deep Heart Care Wiltshire
Assessment report published 24 June 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 19 March to 13 May 2025. This service is a care at home service providing support to adults of all ages and people living with dementia. The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, good governance, staffing and failing to notify Care Quality Commission (CQC). Providers are required by law to notify CQC of serious incidents or events. Following our last assessment, we served the provider Warning Notices for breaches in regulations for safe care and treatment and good governance. We requested an action plan for the other 2 breaches of regulations.
This assessment was completed to check the provider was compliant with the Warning Notices served. We found not enough improvements were found at this assessment and the provider remained in breach of regulations for safe care and treatment and good governance. During this assessment we also found an additional breach of legal regulation in relation to fit and proper persons employed.
People’s medicines were still not being managed safely. The provider failed to have accurate records of what medicines had been administered to people. The provider could not be assured people received the medicines they were prescribed.
Governance systems were still not effective in identifying and addressing any shortfalls across the service. Audits still did not consistently identify where improvement needed to be made. The provider was still not managing incidents safely by making sure people were being referred to relevant healthcare professionals in a timely way and reviewing risks to people’s safety. Care plans and risk management plans for people still did not contain consistently accurate information to give staff safe guidance to follow.
Staff had not been recruited safely. All the required pre-employment checks still were not completed consistently.
However, staff had received the necessary training to work safely with people and told us they had support from management. Therefore, the provider was no longer in breach of legal regulations for staffing. There were enough staff to support people’s needs safely.
In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded.
People's experience of this service
Overall people were happy with the care they received. People and relatives told us people were safe whilst using the service. Comments from people included, “They [staff] are there if I need their help. They make sure they have locked my door. The girls are nice and helpful” and “They [staff] are mindful of my safety; they watch me when I walk.”
There were enough staff available to support people and people said there had been no missed visits. However, some visits were late, and the office did not always inform people their care worker was going to be late.
People said their care workers were kind, caring and friendly. Some people told us there had been difficulties understanding some care workers as they were from overseas and did not have good English communication. However, there had not been any impact and people said things had improved once staff had got to know people.
There were mixed comments regarding management. Some people knew who the manager was and was able to approach them with concerns. However, some people told us they did not know who the manager was and, at times, had difficulties contacting the office. People said they would raise concerns if they needed to.
People were happy with their care worker and the service they received. Comments included, “They [staff] are easy going and I am grateful they are looking after me. I feel lucky. We get on quite well and I am happy with them” and “Really good and nice people and they get on well with us. If wasn’t for them I wouldn’t cope.”
While the people we spoke to expressed that they were generally happy with their care, our assessment found elements of care did not meet the expected standards.