Archived: Care In Comfort

Updated 20 July 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 5 May 2017. The inspection was announced and was undertaken by one inspector. We gave 48 hours’ notice of the inspection as we needed to be sure that the relevant people would be available.

We reviewed the information we held about the service, including statutory notifications that the provider had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

During this inspection we spoke with three people who used the service and three relatives of people who used the service. We also spoke with four care staff and the two registered managers, who were also the provider. We also looked at care records relating to four people who used the service at the time of this inspection. We looked at four records in relation to staff recruitment and training, as well as records related to the quality monitoring of the service.

Updated 20 July 2017

We carried out an announced inspection of this service on 5 May 2017.

The service had two registered managers in post, who were also the provider. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

During this inspection we identified areas that required improvements to ensure people received care that was safe, effective, responsive and well-led. We identified three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

The service is registered to provide personal to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 22 people were using the service.

People's care records were not always updated to ensure that staff had enough guidance and instruction to provide for their current care needs. Although staff knew people they cared for, there was a risk to people’s health, safety and well-being as their care was not being effectively reviewed and updated.

There was a lack of systems in place to ensure the safe administration of medicines.

People could not be assured they were receiving care from staff that had the training and supervision to carry out their roles. The provider did not adequately monitor staff training. There were no staff supervisions or appraisals and staff competency was not being checked to monitor the quality care being delivered.

The registered manager did not understand the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and staff did not always understand what was meant by mental capacity, despite some people using the service having conditions which may have affected their mental capacity. We have made a recommendation to the provider about the MCA.

People were not protected by safe recruitment practices; staff were not being safely recruited and some staff did not have the required recruitment checks in place.

There was a lack of effective quality monitoring in place at the service which meant that people’s care was not being monitored on an on-going basis. There was a lack of oversight by the provider to ensure that people’s care was being delivered safely and effectively by staff who were adequately trained to do so.

People received their care calls as scheduled and there were sufficient numbers of staff working at the service.

People were treated with respect and staff were able to describe how they delivered care to meet people's individual needs. People's health and well-being was monitored and recorded by staff delivering care to people.

Staff were kind and caring towards people they supported and delivered care to ensure people's privacy and maintain their dignity.

Incidents and accidents were monitored and recorded at the service and had been reported to the relevant agencies as required by law.