Archived: D & S Home Care Services

At the time of the inspection, D and S Home Care Service was providing a service to 28 people. Providing the regulated activity personal care to nine of these people.

The service was last inspected in January 2014, at that time the service was compliant with all of the regulations we inspected.

The service did have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

We found multiple breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

The registered provider had not always completed safe recruitment checks to ensure staff were suitable to care for people.

Safe systems were not in place regarding the administration of people’s medicines, we found staff at the service were not trained in administrating medication, this was addressed immediately following the site visit to the location.

We found risks to people who used the service had not been robustly assessed or managed properly. Measures had not always been put in place to minimise risks and to help find ways to reduce them.

People's care plans and risk assessments had not been regularly reviewed regularly with their involvement.

We found many staff had not received appropriate supervision, induction and training to ensure they were confident, safe and competent to provide people with effective and safe care.

There was no effective system in place to monitor the quality of the service people received.

Safe staffing levels had been maintained.

Staff gained people's consent before care and treatment was provided.

People told us staff treated them with kindness and respect. People's privacy and dignity was respected by staff.

People were supported to maintain their health.

The people who used the service expressed their satisfaction with the care and support they received.

People and staff told us the registered manager was approachable and supportive.

We looked at safeguarding arrangements and found that there were procedures in place and the registered manager was trained in recognising abuse in vulnerable adults.

We looked at the complaints procedure and saw that this was available for people to access. We also looked at records and saw that they were completed and stored appropriately.

We spoke to two people who use the agency and they told us; "I couldn't be more happy - they are great ladies" and "The care is good I have no concerns."

We looked at policies and procedures relating to Safeguarding and Complaints and one care file for a person who used the service. It was clear, easy to follow and contained all the information you would need to meet the person's needs.