Home Sweet Home Care Limited

Updated 27 August 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector 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.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 11 people who used the service and nine relatives. We spoke with 10 members of staff, including the registered manager, field care supervisor, safeguarding lead and governance manager, lead care coordinator, office manager, four care assistants and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed 14 sets of care records relating to people and multiple medicines records. We looked at five staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed.

Updated 27 August 2022

About the service

Home Sweet Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing the regulated activity of personal care. The service provides support to adults, many of whom are older people and some who require support with palliative care. At the time of our inspection there were 176 people using the service who received support with personal care.

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

Staff were often late for appointments with people. Medicines were not always managed in a safe way.

Systems were in place to help safeguard people from abuse. Risk assessments were in place which set out the risks people faced and included information about how to mitigate those risks. Steps had been taken to help prevent the spread of infections. Systems were in place for investigating accidents and incidents.

There was an open and positive culture at the service, which meant people, relatives and staff could express their views. The provider worked with other agencies to develop best practice and share knowledge. The provider was aware of their legal responsibilities.

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 Good (published 17 November 2017).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staff punctuality and staff not staying for the full amount of time they were supposed to. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Good to Requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

The provider has taken steps to mitigate risks we identified, but at the time of writing this report, it is too early to tell if they will be effective or not.

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

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

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to staff punctuality and the safe management of medicines 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 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.