Background to this inspection
Updated
9 April 2021
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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.
Service and service type
Elite Specialist Care Ltd 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 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 24 February 2021 and ended on 2 March 2021.
What we did before the inspection
Before the inspection visit, we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included information about incidents the provider must notify us of, such as any allegations of abuse.
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
We also reviewed the last inspection report and information we had received about improvements made.
During the inspection-
We visited the office location on 24 February 2021 to see management staff and review a range of records which included people’s risk assessments, staff files in relation to recruitment and spot-checks and call monitoring records.
After the inspection –
We called people who received care from the service and relatives after the inspection. we spoke with one person and two relatives about their experiences of the service. We spoke with three care workers. We also had contact with one care professional who had worked closely with the provider.
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at policies and procedures, training records, staff and service users’ feedback surveys and quality assurance records.
Updated
9 April 2021
About the service
Elite Specialist Care Ltd is a homecare agency providing personal care. At the time of this inspection four people received support from the agency.
Care Quality Commission (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
Our previous inspection identified that appropriate risk assessments were not always in place and we found a breach of regulation in respect of this. During this focused inspection, we found that the service had taken action to improve this. Appropriate risk assessments were in place and covered areas such as the environment, physical health and personal care. These also contained guidance for minimising potential risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. We found the service no longer in breach with this regulation. However, we discussed with the registered manager that risk management guidance lacked some detail in how to manage the assessed risk.
Our previous inspection found that there were some instances where the service failed to effectively check various aspects of the service and we found a breach of regulation. During this focused inspection, we observed that the service had made improvements and had an effective system in place to monitor the quality of the service being provided to people.
People who used the service told us they were well supported by care workers. Relatives we spoke with confirmed this. One relative said, “[Name] is 100% safe with the carer.”
Policies and systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of possible harm. Care workers told us that they had received training and report any issues to the registered manager. The service had safe recruitment procedures in place. Currently nobody was assisted with their medicines.
People who used the service and relatives told us that there had been no issues with punctuality or missed care calls.
Care workers we spoke with told us that they felt supported by the registered manager. They told us that management were approachable and they raised no concerns in respect of this. People and relatives confirmed they were involved in their care and feedback was actively sought about the quality of the care provided.
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 requires improvement (published 10 April 2019).
Why we inspected
We previously carried out a comprehensive inspection of this service on 28 January 2019. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led.
The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for the key question not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Elite Specialist Care Ltd 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.