Loyal Companion Care Limited

Updated 10 August 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Loyal Companion Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 72 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 05 July 2019 and ended on 23 July 2019. We visited the office location on 05 July 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included, information sent to us by the provider, the report of the previous inspection and the provider’s action plan. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Most people were living with dementia and they were not able to tell us about their experiences of being supported by the service. We spoke with two people, relatives of three people, one social care professional, three staff, the registered manager, and the provider's nominated individual (provider).

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and medicine records. We looked at two staff files to review the provider’s recruitment, training and staff supervision processes. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, audits and surveys.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at further quality assurance records. We requested and received feedback from a local authority professional who worked closely with the service.

Updated 10 August 2019

About the service:

Loyal Companion Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. At the time of the inspection, they provided personal care, to seven people.

People’s experience of using this service:

Relatives and staff said the service met people’s needs. Improvements had been made to the provider’s quality monitoring processes since our previous inspection. This ensured people now received safe and person-centred care.

People were protected from harm by staff who were trained to identify and report concerns. People were safe because potential risks to their health and wellbeing had been managed well. There were enough staff to support people safely. People were supported well to take their medicines. Lessons were learnt from incidents to prevent recurrence. Staff followed effective processes to prevent the spread of infections.

Staff had the right skills and knowledge to meet people's needs effectively. Staff had the information they required to meet people’s assessed needs. People had been supported to have enough to eat and drink. People had access to healthcare services when required. This helped people to maintain their health and well-being.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were involved in making decisions about their care and support. Staff supported people in a way that respected and promoted their privacy and dignity. They encouraged people to be as independent as possible.

Relatives were happy with how staff supported people to meet their individual needs. They said this had been done in a caring and respectful way. There had been no recent complaints, but there was a system to manage this. The provider dealt with any issues quickly and they were committed to continuously improving the service.

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 07 July 2018) and there were two breaches of regulations. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.