Archived: Angel Home Care Consultancy Ltd

Angel Home Care Consultancy Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection it was providing a service to two people.

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

The provider was not always following safe recruitment practices or supporting staff sufficiently to ensure they employed suitable staff with the right mix of skills, competences, qualifications, experience and knowledge to meet people’s individual needs.

Systems for inducting and the ongoing support of staff were inconsistently applied.

Potential risks to people’s safety had been assessed. However, these were not being reviewed on a systematic and regular basis.

There was no registered manager in post and the provider had taken on all the duties of both the management and day to day administrative running of the service. Legal requirements were not always understood or met. Governance and performance management was not always reliable or effective.

People who used the service were positive about the provider and were able to contact them when they needed to.

People using the service and their relatives were positive about the care they received. They trusted the staff and felt safe with them.

Staff understood their responsibilities to keep people safe from potential abuse, bullying or discrimination. Staff knew what to look out for that might indicate a person was being abused.

Staff made sure no one was disadvantaged because of their age, gender, sexual orientation, disability or culture. Staff understood the importance of upholding and respecting people’s diversity.

Staff had been trained in the management of medicines and suitable policies and systems were in place.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

The last rating for this service was Good (published 25 May 2018).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns we received about assessing risks, staff training, recruitment and support as well as the overall management of the agency. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

Enforcement

We have identified two breaches in relation to staffing and good governance at this inspection.

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

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Follow up

We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Angel Home Care Consultancy Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection it was providing a service to three people.

There was a registered manager at the service at the time of our 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Relatives told us they felt the service was safe, staff were kind and the care received was good. We found staff had a good understanding of their responsibility with regard to safeguarding adults.

Risk assessments were in place which provided guidance on how to support people safely. Medicines were managed in a safe manner. There were sufficient numbers of suitable staff employed by the service. Staff had been recruited safely with appropriate checks on their backgrounds completed. People were protected by the prevention and control of infection.

Staff undertook training and received regular supervision to help support them to provide effective care. However we found supervision records were generic and lacked detailed for personal development. We have made a recommendation about supervision.

Staff we spoke with had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). MCA is law protecting people who are unable to make decisions for themselves. People who had capacity to consent to their care had indicated their consent by signing consent forms

Person centred support plans were in place and people and their relatives were involved in planning the care and support they received.

People’s cultural and religious needs were respected when planning and delivering care. Discussions with staff members showed that they respected people’s sexual orientation so that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people could feel accepted and welcomed in the service.

The service had an end of life policy for people who used the service. However the service did not explore people's end of life wishes during the initial needs assessment and care planning. We have made a recommendation about supporting people with end of life wishes.

The provider had a complaint procedure in place. People and their relatives knew how to make a complaint.

Staff told us the registered manager was respectful, knowledgeable and communicated well. The service had various quality assurance and monitoring mechanisms in place.