SK Care Coventry Ltd

Updated 7 June 2023

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 2014.

This was a targeted inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Warning Notice in relation to Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

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 the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 11 April 2023 and ended on 17 May 2023. We visited the location’s office on 15 May 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from integrated care systems (ICSs) who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke via the telephone with 2 people's relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 7 members of staff including the registered manager, the deputy manager, the care coordinator, the administrator and care staff during our site visit. We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people's care records, medicines records, staff training data and records of the checks the managers completed to assure themselves people received a safe and good quality service.

Updated 7 June 2023

About the service

SK Care Coventry Ltd is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to older people, younger adults and children with a range of needs, including mental ill health, physical disabilities, sensory impairments and dementia. At the time of our inspection 13 people, including 10 children were using the 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

The lack of provider and management level oversight meant regulatory compliance and some previously demonstrated standards had not been maintained. The provider had not ensured staff always followed their policies and procedures. Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service and drive improvement were not effective. Some relatives had been invited to provide feedback about the service, but others felt communication between them and the management team needed to be improved.

Risks associated with people's care including their home environments and medicines were not well managed. This exposed people to the risk of avoidable harm. People received their care calls at the times they expected, for the length of time agreed and from staff they knew. Relatives were confident their family members were safe when receiving care and support and staff understood their responsibilities to keep people safe. New staff completed an induction and training the provider considered essential to meet people’s needs safely and effectively. Staff recruitment practices needed to improve to ensure all staff were recruited safely. Staff felt valued and supported by the management team.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 22 June 2018).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to late care calls and unsafe staff recruitment practices. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well-led which contain those requirements. 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 SK Care Coventry Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection.

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

Full information about CQC's regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

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 to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.