Care Signature Christian Homecare Services Limited

Care Signature Christian Homecare Services Limited is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 27 people receiving support from this service.

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.

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

Recruitment checks were not sufficiently robust to ensure care staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people. Appropriate safety checks were not consistently in place before care staff started work.

Improvements were needed to ensure people all had a sufficiently detailed care and risk management plan in place. We found some inconsistencies which the registered manager took action to address straight away.

We received mixed feedback from people in relation to receiving regular care staff for their visits. The registered manager was in the process of taking action to address this. Staff had received an induction when they first started working at the service, and training relevant to their roles was either planned or had already been undertaken.

The provider’s systems and processes were not always effective in helping to identify where improvements were required.

Care staff had received training in safeguarding people. Staff we spoke with were confident on how to report concerns. 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 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 good (published 24 April 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Care Signature Christian Homecare Services Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to the safe recruitment of care staff as well as the provider’s governance at this inspection.

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

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.

The service had 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 staff were knowledgeable about how to keep people safe from harm and the actions that they would take should they have any concerns. The staff knew the people they supported well because they were assigned to support the same people on a regular basis.

There was a robust recruitment process and procedure. This included completing references and checks to determine if the applicant was suitable to work for the service. Induction and further training was provided to all staff and they were supported through regular supervision and spot checks. When people need support to take their medicines, staff did this safely.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and encouraged them to remain as independent as possible. Staff consulted people about their care and the staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act. Best interest decisions involved people's representatives when required. The staff worked with other professionals as appropriate to support people to meet their individual needs.

Staff worked in a person-centred manner and treated people with dignity and respect. People were treated with kindness and compassion by understanding staff.

Care plans were person-centred and reviewed regularly and as required if people’s needs changed. People discussed their care plans with staff and they had active input into the reviews of their care.

People and their relatives consistently spoke positively about their experiences with the service. People knew how to make complaints about the service should the need arise.

People's views on the service were sought through surveys and questionnaires. Where issues were identified, the registered manager took action to resolve them.

The senior team completed regular audits and quality assurance checks of the service and this supported them to identify and resolve potential service issues.