Archived: Sunny Medicare LTD

Updated 22 January 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This comprehensive inspection took place on the 13 December 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection as we needed to ensure that staff were available to support the inspection. We made telephone calls to two people’s relatives and one staff member. We spoke with one staff member and the registered manager, who is also the provider, at the office on the day of our inspection.

As part of the inspection process we looked at information we already held about the provider. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make. We reviewed other information we held about the service to aid with our inspection planning.

We also contacted other health and social care organisations such as representatives from the local authority contracts and quality team and checked with Healthwatch to seek their views about the service provided. Their views helped us in the planning of our inspection and the judgements we made. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We looked at care documentation for two people and their medicines records, two staff files, staff supervision, appraisal and training records. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service including audits and quality monitoring systems.

Updated 22 January 2019

This inspection took place on 13 December and was announced. This was Sunny Medicare’s first inspection since their registration in November 2016.. We have rated Sunny Medicare overall as ‘Requires Improvement’. Sunny Medicare Limited are registered to provide the regulated activity of personal care. This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. There were two people using this service at the time of our inspection.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection. 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 registered manager was also the provider.

We found that the provider had not carried out Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks on their staff. The DBS helps providers reduce the risk of employing unsuitable staff from working with people who use care services. People’s medicines were not always managed safely.S People were cared for by staff who had received infection control training. People had regular quality assurance visits from the registered manager and were happy with the care they received.

People were supported by staff who arrived at their calls on time. People were supported to eat and drink well. People’s choices were respected and their consent sought. People were supported to access healthcare in the community.

People were supported by staff who had completed an induction training programme. People had regular staff who knew them well. People were involved in the review of their care. People’s privacy and dignity was respected. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and were supported in the least restrictive ways possible

People were supported by kind and compassionate staff. People were encouraged to maintain their independence. People’s dignity and privacy was respected. Staff felt supported by the registered manager.

People’s views and preferences were respected. People were supported by regular staff who knew them well. People’s cultural needs were respected..

Effective systems and processes were not in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality of the service provided. Records did not reflect peoples current needs. There was no oversight of the quality of care people received. There was an open and transparent culture at Sunny Medicare and the registered manager and staff were very honest about where they could improve.

There were insufficient and inadequate systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service. This was a breach of Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.