We carried out a review of the data available to us about Doves Care Agency Ltd on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Doves Care Agency Ltd, you can give feedback on this service.
Doves Care Agency Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care for people living in their own houses and flats in the community.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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. At the time of this inspection there were 21 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People felt safe supported by Doves Care Agency Ltd and received their care and support in line with their needs and wishes. Staff had received training in safeguarding and knew how to identify and report concerns. Any safeguarding concerns had been reported in line with guidance.
Accidents, incidents and falls were documented and reviewed to identify any patterns and trends, with lessons learned considered and shared with staff to help reduce future risks.
There were enough well-trained and competent staff available to meet peoples’ care and support needs. People’s medicines were managed safely by trained staff who had their competency assessed. People had received their medicines on time and as prescribed.
People's views about the quality of the service they received were sought through regular meetings and via questionnaires. The registered manager used a range of systems and processes to monitor the quality and effectiveness of the service provided. We found actions identified by these systems had been addressed in a timely manner.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. 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 05 December 2017).
Why we inspected
We received some concerns about staffing and the management of medicines. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Doves Care Agency on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
Doves Care Agency provides personal care and support services to adults living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the provider was supporting up to 15 people.
The service has a registered manager in place. 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.
The provider followed the local authority policy and guidance when dealing with safeguarding people from harm and the staff we spoke with demonstrated a good understanding of safeguarding issues.
There was a robust recruitment procedure to help ensure the staff recruited were suitable to work with the people using the service.
Staffing levels were sufficient to provide the level of care required.
Risk assessments were in place and were regularly reviewed and updated.
Staff were trained to administer medicines safely and had undertaken further training to ensure they could deal with a number of health issues.
Regular checks were undertaken to help ensure on-going competence in this area.
Staff demonstrated a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The service demonstrated a commitment to staff training, which was on-going and regular refreshers were undertaken.
Supervisions were undertaken regularly and considered important in offering an opportunity for discussion between staff and management.
Supervisions were used to remind staff of the importance of processes and to review spot checks and further learning required as part of the spot checks.
Care files were clear and comprehensive and contained relevant health and personal information.
The service was flexible and responsive to people’s changing needs, desires and circumstances.
Confidentiality was respected and independence was promoted.
Communication with relatives was on-going throughout the duration of their relative’s involvement with the service.
Comments were encouraged formally and informally and there was a complaints policy in place. Literature given out to families gave the information and opportunity for people to raise concerns or make suggestions.
Feedback was regularly sought from families and people using the service. The service listened and took action to address any concerns and suggestions put forward by people who used the service and their families.
Team meetings were regularly undertaken, giving staff the opportunity to discuss any issues and to share good practice examples.
A number of audits were undertaken to ensure processes were being followed.