SK Care Coventry Ltd

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 14 people, including 9 children were using the service.

CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 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 management of risks associated with people's care and their home environments had improved. However, further work was needed to ensure risk management plans provided staff with all the information they needed to keep people safe. Action was being planned to address this. Staff knew the people they supported and understood how to keep people safe. Improvements had been made to ensure people's medicines were administered and disposed of in line with the providers procedure and best practice guidance. Feedback from relatives confirmed this.

Service oversite had improved. The provider had introduced a range of quality monitoring checks resulting in some improvements to the quality and safety of the service and compliance. However, further time was needed for these to be fully effective and embedded. Staff felt supported and met regularly with the management team to ensure they understood and worked in line with the provider’s policies and expectations.

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 requires improvement (published 08 March 2023) and there were breaches of regulation in relation to safety and governance of the service. We served a Warning Notice in relation to good governance. At this inspection we found improvements had been made in this area and the provider is now meeting that regulation.

Why we inspected

We undertook this targeted inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.

We use targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

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.

Follow up

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

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.

This was the first inspection of the service following their registration with us in September 2017.

The office visit took place on 24 May 2018 and was announced. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange to be there and arrange for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

A requirement of the provider’s registration is that they have a registered manager. There was a registered manager in post 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was also the owner of the company.

People felt safe using the service and there were enough staff to provide the care and support people required. People received care from staff they knew and who arrived around the time expected. Staff had completed safeguarding training and understood how to keep people safe from avoidable harm and abuse.

Risks to people’s safety were assessed and plans provided guidance for staff about how to reduce known risks. The provider's recruitment procedures made sure staff were safe to work with people who used the service. People received their prescribed medicines from staff who had completed training to do this safely.

People had an assessment completed at the start of their service to make sure staff could meet their care and support needs. Staff received an induction when they started working for the service and completed training that provided them with the skills and knowledge to support people’s needs.

People's right to make their own decisions about their care were supported by managers and staff who understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act. Staff asked for people’s consent before they assisted them with any care and respected decisions people made about their care and support. When needed, arrangements were in place to support people to have enough to eat and drink and remain in good health.

People received care from staff who they considered to be friendly and caring, and who stayed long enough to provide the care people required. Staff we spoke with knew the people they visited well, they promoted people’s privacy and dignity and provided people with care and support which was individual to them.

Care plans were person centred and provided information for staff about people’s individual care needs. Plans were regularly reviewed and updated when people’s needs changed. People knew how to complain, and information about making a complaint was available for people.

Staff were very happy in their work and spoke positively about the management team. They understood their roles and responsibilities and had regular individual meetings and observations of their practice to make sure they carried these out safely. There was an ‘out of hours’ on call system which ensured support and advice was always available for staff when the office was closed.

The management team worked well together and were committed to providing a high quality service to people. There were effective and responsive processes for assessing and monitoring the quality of the service. The registered manager used feedback from people and staff to assist them in making improvements to the service.