Archived: Mayfair Homecare - Farnborough

Updated 18 May 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: The inspection team consisted of two inspectors and one 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, in this case services for older people.

Service and service type:

The service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to adults with a range of care needs.

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 visit because the location provides a domiciliary care service to people who may be out during the day. We needed to be sure that they would be available to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 18 March 2019 with telephone calls to people who used the service. We visited the office on 19 and 20 March 2019 to see the registered manager and staff, and to see care records, policies and procedures, and visited one person in their home.

What we did:

Before the inspection we looked at information we held about the service:

We did not request a Provider Information Return prior to the inspection, instead we gathered this information at the inspection. Providers are required if requested to send us information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. The law requires providers to notify us of certain events that happen during the running of a service. We reviewed notifications received since the last inspection. We reviewed the previous inspection report and the providers website.

During the inspection:

• We spoke with ten people who used the service and one family member by telephone.

• We spoke with the registered manager, the care services director, the recruitment and wellbeing officer and three care staff.

• We looked at the care records of six people.

• We looked at four staff records, including training and recruitment records.

• We looked at other records to do with the management of the service.

Updated 18 May 2019

About the service:

Mayfair Homecare Farnborough is a domiciliary care service. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 75 people in their own home. People supported included older people, younger people and people living with dementia.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission website at

www.cqc.org.uk

People’s experience of using this service:

• People provided mixed feedback about the timing of their care calls and some people had cancelled calls due to care not being offered at the required times.

• People received their medicines from trained staff. However, we found the provider had not ensured people’s medicine needs had been fully documented and people’s medicine records were incomplete.

• Processes to monitor the quality of the service and drive improvements were not fully effective.

• Most people had detailed risk assessments in place where required to minimise the risk of harm. Some people’s care files did not have risk assessments where needed.

• The provider had strengthened their recruitment procedures since the last inspection and there had been a positive impact on staff retention and moral.

• People received care and support from staff who were trained and had the right skills and knowledge.

• Care workers had developed good relationships with people they supported. They respected people's dignity and privacy, and promoted their independence.

Rating at last inspection:

• At the last inspection the service was rated requires improvement (20 April 2018). This means this is a repeat rating of requires improvement.

Why we inspected:

• All services rated "requires improvement" are re-inspected within one year of our prior inspection.

• This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

We identified one breach of the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 relating to safe care and treatment. Details of action we have asked the provider to take can be found at the end of this report.

Follow up:

We have asked the provider to send us an action plan telling us what steps they are to take to make the improvements needed. We will continue to monitor information and intelligence we receive about the service to ensure good quality is provided to people. We will return to re-inspect in line with our inspection timescales for Requires Improvement services.