Karechoice Ltd

Updated 27 July 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. 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

Notice of inspection

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

Inspection activity started on 5 July 2019 and ended on 16 July 2019. We visited the office location on 5 July 2019.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We looked at information we hold about the service such as notifications of events and registration information. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager and the nominated individual for the service. We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and related documentation. We looked at records for four members of staff in relation to recruitment, training, supervision and appraisal. We reviewed policies and procedures and other records relating to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We spoke with two members of care staff. We contacted one person using the service as per arrangements, but our calls were not answered. We contacted a relative of a person using the service who asked us to contact another relative. This relative was a member of care staff and due to a possible conflict of interest we did not ask this person for feedback.

Updated 27 July 2019

About the service

Karechoice is a domiciliary care agency. At the time of the inspection, the service was providing support to two people over the age of 65.

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 have no direct information from people using the service to show that people were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. We have limited evidence to demonstrate that staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.

Despite the provider having policies and systems in place to support good care practice, we found breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 in relation to safe care and treatment, recruitment and governance.

People were not protected from the risk of harm. Care records were incomplete and risks to people were not being assessed and planned for. Staff did not always have appropriate guidance on how to provide people with safe care and support.

Safe recruitment processes were not always followed to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

The provider had not yet developed a systematic approach to quality assurance to identify shortfalls and drive improvements.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service registered with us on 11 December 2017 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.