Royale Carers Limited Also known as Royale Carers

Updated 3 February 2022

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.

This was a focused inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Warning Notice in relation to Regulation 19 (Fit and proper persons) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

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

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 who is also the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 2 December 2021 and ended on 8 December 2021. We visited the office location on 2 December 2021.

What we did before the inspection

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.

As part of our monitoring and inspection activity we carried out a regulatory review of the domiciliary care service in August 2021, to check what improvements had been made since our last inspection to the service in April 2021. Specifically, we looked at the recruitment files for four newly employed members of staff.

We sought feedback from the Local Authority. This information helps support our inspections and we used all information to plan our inspection. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

As part of the inspection process we spoke with the registered manager, office manager, training coordinator and the service’s administrator. We reviewed a range of records including six people's care and support plans and reviews, risk assessments, medication administration records and staff training records. We also reviewed records used in managing the service, for example, policies and procedures and quality assurance monitoring records.

After the inspection

We contacted and spoke with five members of staff on 3 December 2021 and spoke with a total of four people using the service and six relatives on 8 December 2021.

Updated 3 February 2022

About the service

Royale Carers Limited provide personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing. This is a domiciliary care service and primarily provides a service to older people, older people living with dementia or who may have a physical disability. At the time of inspection there were 43 people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Staff knew the risks people needed support with, however these were not always documented in peoples care plans. People and those acting on their behalf told us they or their family member was safe, and they had no concerns about their safety. Suitable arrangements were in place to protect people from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff understood how to raise concerns and knew what to do to safeguard people. Suitable arrangements were in place to ensure people received their medication as they should, but where errors had occurred these had been investigated. Generally, there were enough numbers of staff available to support people safely. Staff recruitment and selection practices and procedures were robust. People were protected by the service’s prevention and control of infection arrangements.

People told us the service was well managed. Quality assurance arrangements enabled the provider and registered manager to monitor the quality of the service provided and staff performance.

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 June 2021). At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 [Regulated Activities] Regulations 2014.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection and to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-Led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions 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 Royale Carers Limited 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.