13 July 2022
During an inspection looking at part of 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.