Carlton Court

Updated 24 March 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

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 manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 20 February 2023 and ended on 27 February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 20 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We reviewed the last provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 2 people and 5 relatives. We spoke with 5 members of staff including the registered manager and operations manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people’s support records. We reviewed 2 staff records in relation to recruitment, training and supervision.

Updated 24 March 2023

About the service

Carlton Court provides personal care and support to people who require assistance in their own home. At the time of our inspection approximately 20 people were being supported by the service. 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

People and relatives told us they were happy with the support they had received and were positive about the staff. One relative said, “It is not always the same staff, but they introduce themselves and have been lovely and caring.”

Care and treatment was not recorded in detail or in a person centred way. Care plans and risk assessments did not contain enough guidance for staff to mitigate risks and provide safe support to people.

Recruitment processes were not always robust. We have made a recommendation about the recruitment of staff.

The registered manager had failed to implement effective systems to monitor the safety and quality of the service and improve care.

The registered manager had been working in partnership with stakeholders to implement further training with staff to improve their knowledge and mitigate risks to people. Staff were aware of how to raise concerns around safeguarding to keep people safe.

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 27 September 2019.)

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the safe care of people. 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 changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Carlton Court on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.