24-7 Care Services

Updated 4 January 2024

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 service was inspected by 1 inspector.

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 provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

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

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 15 November 2023 and ended on 29 November 2023. We visited the location’s office on 15 November 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 members of staff including the registered manager, the training manager and 4 care staff. We spoke with 2 service users and 3 relatives for their experiences of using the service and received feedback from a local commissioner. We looked at the care plans and medication records of 3 people, policies and procedures, 3 staff recruitment files and a number of quality audits.

Updated 4 January 2024

About the service

24/7 Care Services is a domiciliary care service, providing the regulated activity of personal care. The service provides support to older adults, people with a physical disability, people with a learning disability, younger people and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 11 people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the service did not care or support anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support

People told us they felt safe when supported by care staff and were happy and complimentary about their care. Systems were in place to protect people from harm and staff were aware of the risks to people, however care records were not up to date and did not always reflect people’s current needs. People were supported by safely recruited staff who knew their care needs well.

Right Care

People were supported by staff who understood how to protect them from poor care and abuse. Staff had received training in how to recognise abuse and knew what actions to take in those circumstances. The provider worked alongside other agencies to keep people safe and assist them in accessing effective care and support. People were supported by a consistent group of staff who had received training in how to support them safely and effectively.

Right Culture

People confirmed their care needs were regularly assessed. We found some areas that required improvement that the provider’s own audits had not identified. These were in relation to ensuring information held in people’s care records was up to date and correctly risk assessed, medication audits were effective and protocols were in place to guide staff on the circumstances in which to administer ‘as required’ medicines. People told us they had no issues getting hold of the management team and they were regularly contacted to ensure they were happy with the service they received.

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 rating for this service was good (published 5 January 2018).

Why we inspected

We inspected this service due to the length of time since the previous inspection. We completed a focussed inspection of the key questions safe, effective and well led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the rating 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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for 24/7 Care Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach in relation to good governance 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.