Background to this inspection
Updated
22 March 2023
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
This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 2 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 and nursing care to people living in their own homes.
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
We gave the service 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be available to support the inspection when we visited.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used this information to plan our inspection.
The provider did not complete the required Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. Please see the well-led section of the full inspection report for further details
During the inspection
We spoke with 13 people, 10 family members and a friend about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with the nurse case manager, business support manager, field assessor and 5 staff members who provided care to people. We contacted 1 healthcare professional to find out their experiences of working with this provider.
We reviewed a range of records. This included people's care plans and risk assessments, medicines management procedures and staff files in relation to training and recruitment data. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and policies were also reviewed.
Updated
22 March 2023
About the service
J.C. Michael Groups Wandsworth is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection, the service supported people with conditions such as dementia and mobility needs. Out of a total number of 68 people, 64 people were receiving personal care from this provider.
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
Some feedback we received from people and their relatives was that staff did not attend the visits on time. We made a recommendation about this.
Although training provided for staff was meeting their role expectations, some staff's understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and Whistleblowing was limited. The provider was aiming to appropriately evaluate applicants during the interview process. Audits carried out by the registered manager were not always recorded. CQC records were not always up to date because the provider had not notified us about the changes taking place. Action taken by the provider to address these gaps will be reviewed at our next planned inspection.
People and their family members told us that the care provided was safe and met the needs of the people the service supported. People felt respected and had a choice of how they wanted to be cared for.
People's risk assessments were up to date and assessed the risks associated with people's care making sure staff supported people safely. There were systems and processes in place to safeguard people as necessary. Safe medicines management practices were followed by the provider. The provider followed current best practice guidelines to effectively manage risks associated with infection prevention and control (IPC).
There was a good delegation between the management team which supported the monitoring of the care provision. Staff felt supported in their role. Healthcare professionals were involved in care delivery when people needed their support.
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 overall rating for this service was good (published 22/11/2019). At this inspection the overall rating remained the same.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on when the service was last inspected.
We did not inspect the key questions of effective, caring and responsive. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for J.C. Michael Groups Wandsworth on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.