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Link Medical Staffing Solutions Ltd Haverhill Branch

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

4A Hollands Road, Haverhill, Suffolk, CB9 8PP (020) 3866 1182

Provided and run by:
Link Medical Staffing Solutions Ltd

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 4 April 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 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was undertaken by an inspector and an Expert by Experience. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people and their relatives to seek their feedback. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

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

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. This person was also the provider of the service. We have referred to them as ‘the provider’ throughout this report.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 31 January 2023 and ended on 1 March 2023. We visited the location’s office on 31 January 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed any information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 people who use the service and the relatives of 8 people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We had email contact with 7 members of staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included 7 people’s care records and medication records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits were also viewed.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 4 April 2023

About the service

Link Medical Care Staffing Solutions Ltd Haverhill Branch is a domiciliary care service providing support to people in their own homes. 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. At the time of our visit there were 18 people in receipt of the regulated activity of personal care.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

The provider did not have adequate knowledge of the ‘Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture’ guidance. In addition, in July 2022 the Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a requirement that regulated service providers ensure their staff receive training on learning disability and autism which is appropriate to the person’s role. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is the standardised training that was developed for this purpose and is the government's preferred and recommended training for health and social care staff to undertake.¿The provider had not heard about this training and staff working for Link Medical Staffing Solutions had not undertaken it.

The provider was not able to demonstrate how they would meet the underpinning principles of Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture’. We signposted the provider to relevant information.

People shared that they did not always receive their care and support visits from staff they knew. They told us where changes occurred, these were not always communicated in a timely manner.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice.

Mechanisms for auditing were in place, but they needed to be strengthened and clear records of outcome and actions needed maintained. People and their relatives required increased formal opportunities to feedback about the care they received, and the provider needed to improve how they evidenced actions in response to feedback. Many members of staff spoke of a lack of communication within the service.

People spoke positively about the care they received, and the staff providing their care. People were safely supported with their medicines and systems were in place to ensure good infection prevention and control practice was in place.

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 8 September 2022). At our last inspection we found breaches of the regulations and we issued the provider with a warning notice. At this inspection we found improvements were still needed in some areas, but progress had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to regulation’s 12 and 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met.

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 remains requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

Whilst there were some improvements, we have found evidence that the provider still needs to make further improvements. Please see the Safe, Effective and Well-Led sections of this full report

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Link Medical Staffing Solutions on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have made a recommendation that the provider research current guidance and best practice in supporting people who have a learning disability and autistic people.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider and request an action plan to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.