The People Care Team

Updated 20 June 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:

The inspection was undertaken by one inspector.

Service and service type: The People Care Team is a domiciliary care agency providing support and personal care to people living in their own homes who are in receipt of the regulated activity of personal care. The service supported older people and people living with dementia in the Medway area.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The manager had applied to register. This means that the provider is 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 site visit because the service is a domiciliary service we wanted to make sure people we were able to speak with people and the staff who supported them.

Inspection site visit activity started on 15 May 2019 and ended on 17 May 2019. On 15 May we spoke with people and their relatives on the telephone. On 16 and 17 May we visited the office location to see the manager and office staff, speak with staff and to review a range of records.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse. The manager completed a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give key information about what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make. We assessed this and used this information to plan the inspection.

During the inspection we reviewed a range of records which included four people’s care plans and associated documents, recruitment, training and supervision records and records relating to the quality monitoring and management of the service.

We spoke with six people and two relatives.

We spoke with five staff, the manager, the business management consultant and a representative for one of the company directors.

Updated 20 June 2019

About the service: The People Care Team is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and live in care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 35 people were receiving personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care, where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service:

There was little oversight and monitoring of the quality of the service delivered. Checks and audits were not effective and robust. Feedback about the quality of service was requested, however the results were not analysed or shared with people and staff.

Risks to people were not consistently assessed, reviewed and updated. This had not had a negative impact on people, however there was a risk that people may not be protected. We have made a recommendation about this.

There were not always enough staff to provide people with the support they needed when they wanted it. The shortage of staff had led to some people’s calls being changed at the last minute and they had not been informed of the changes. The provider was recruiting new staff to address this.

People were supported by staff who were recruited safely and knowledgeable and trained in their roles.

People were supported to remain as healthy as possible and staff worked with health care professionals to ensure care was consistent.

People told us they received good care and felt safe having staff from The People Care Team coming in to support them.

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 said the staff were kind and caring. They said, “[The staff] chat to me and are wonderful company. They are very, very good” and “[The staff] are all excellent. They are very jolly and always polite”.

People knew how to complain and were given the opportunity to feedback about the quality of service they received.

People and staff had confidence in the new management structure. One staff commented, “It is definitely on the up since [the manager] took over”.

Rating at last inspection: Good when inspected on 02, 03 and 04 November 2016 (report published 29 November 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our inspection schedule for those services rated as Requires Improvement.

The service met the characteristics of Requires Improvement. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk