Genuine Carers - Oxford City

Genuine Carers is a domiciliary care agency (DCA). The service provides personal care services to people in their own homes or people in supported living arrangements. At the time of our inspection 28 people received personal care as the regulated activity.

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

Some people’s care records were lacking in guidance for staff on reducing the risks associated with

people's on-going health needs. Although Improvements had been made since the last inspection in relation to governance and systems., there were still shortfalls in relation to quality monitoring.

The provider had made improvements since the last inspection. Medicines were managed safely and in line with guidance.

People were protected against the employment of unsuitable staff because the registered managers followed safe recruitment policies and procedures. People were protected from potential abuse by staff who had received training and were confident in raising concerns.

Rating at last inspection and update:

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 8 June 2019) and there were two breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected:

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions of Safe and Well-led which contained the previous breaches.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has not changed from Requires Improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Genuine Carers Oxford on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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

Genuine Carers is a domiciliary care agency that was providing personal care to 24 older people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

We identified three breaches of regulations. These were in relation to safe care and treatment, recruitment and good governance.

Medicines management was not always based on current best practice and the systems in place to monitor the quality of service were not always effective.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to report concerns and understood how to keep people safe. We saw that risks to people's safety and well-being were managed through a risk management process.

People benefited from kind and committed staff. People complimented the support received and told us they formed meaningful, caring relationships with the staff. Staff knew what was important to people and ensured people had care that met their needs and choices. People's dignity, confidentiality and privacy were respected and their independence was promoted.

People received support that met their needs and was in line with care plans and good practice. People's rights to make own decisions were respected. People were encouraged to maintain good diet and access health services when required.

People complimented the continuity of care provided by skilled and competent staff. People, staff and relatives were involved and felt listened to. Staff and management worked well in partnership with other agencies, social and health professionals and external organisations.

More information is in the detailed findings below.

Rating at last inspection: This is a newly registered service. This was the first inspection.

Why we inspected: We inspected this service within 12 months of the date of registration in line with our inspection methodology.

Enforcement: You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our

reinspection schedule for those services rated Good.

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