- Homecare service
Angels Care At Home Ltd
Report from 23 September 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 29 September 2025 to 23 October 2025.
Angels Care at Home Ltd is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes in Swindon and Hertfordshire. On the day of our inspection 15 people received a regulated activity.
The assessment was carried out due to information we received about the culture of the service.
We reviewed all the quality statements under the key questions of Safe and Well-led.
The provider did not always share potential safeguarding concerns with statutory bodies as required. People’s capacity was not always being assessed, and the provider did not always liaise effectively with partners to establish information about people’s capacity. Capacity was also not always documented in individual care plans and risk assessments. Incidents were not always fully investigated, and lessons were not always learnt within the team environment.
The provider did not always do all that was reasonable to mitigate the risks for the health safety and welfare of people. Risk assessments did not always contain enough information to support staff to manage risks for people.
Recruitment procedures were not always effective, and the provider had not always followed up on safe recruitment practices in line with legislation. Staff training records given to us by the provider did not comprehensively show what training staff had received. Therefore, we were unable to verify what training staff had completed.
Medicines were not always managed safely. We saw some missing information on medicine administration charts (MAR) where it was not clear if people had been supported to take their medicines.
Although leaders were compassionate and inclusive, leaders were not always capable, and we identified shortfalls in the oversight of the service. We identified governance concerns and the systems and processes in place did not always ensure the service was operating effectively. Governance concerns were identified during the last assessment of the service and therefore, improvement had not been made.
Partners told us communication with the service was sometimes difficult and they needed to follow up to gain the information needed. The provider did not always consider how learning, innovation and improvement could be embedded into the service but told us this was due to time constraints.
However, there was evidence of incidents being recorded and acted on. There were referral and assessment protocols and there were systems to record safeguarding concerns and note the actions taken. Some care plans contained effective risk management information, but this was not always consistent. As and when (PRN) protocols were in place to support people with their medicines and there was evidence of staff receiving medicine competencies.
Staff felt supported by the leaders, received regular supervisions, and enjoyed working at the service. They felt able to speak up and have their voices heard and there were workforce equality, diversity, and inclusion initiatives in place.
The business continuity plan (BCP) outlined what staff should do in an emergency. Information about the values, vision, and mission of the service was available in key documents which were provided to staff and service users. The registered manager was open and transparent during the assessment of the service and the challenges they faced. They had decided to recruit a more experienced registered manager to oversee the service, and they were due to commence in their role in December 2025.
We found 5 breaches of regulation in, safe care and treatment, need for consent, fit and proper persons employed, staffing and good governance.
In instances where CQC has begun a process of regulatory action, we may publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded, if the action has been taken forward.
We have also asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
Feedback was gathered from people using the service and their relatives off-site. People told us they felt safe with staff and were generally satisfied with the support they received. People were positive about the staff and comments included, “They are well trained and let us know if there are any concerns,” and “They are excellent, attentive, they treat [Person] with love and kindness, they look after them well, I have no complaints.”
However, people told us there were several occasions of early or late visits and staff missing visits. Although we did not identify any harm had come to people this impacted on people getting the support they needed. People also told us staff did not always stay for the full duration of the visits. People told us they were able to raise concerns; however, they told us their concerns were not always listened to or acted upon by the registered manager.