Background to this inspection
Updated
23 July 2022
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
The inspection team consisted of one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their 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 no 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 that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 17 May 2022 and ended on 27 May 2022. We visited the location’s office on 26 May 2022.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
During the inspection, we spoke with the care manager and an administrator. We contacted a relative by and a staff member by email. We also spoke to another staff member by telephone, however both staff members were not actively working at the service.
We reviewed two recruitment records and one care record. We reviewed staff training and supervision. We reviewed the provider’s action plan and quality monitoring arrangements.
Overall inspection
Insufficient evidence to rate
Updated
23 July 2022
About the service
Preferred Home Care Limited is a Domiciliary Care Agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there was one person being supported by the service. We have been unable to allocate a rating to some of our key questions to give an overall rating as there was insufficient information/evidence for us to form a judgement.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
At this inspection, we found some improvements had been made since our last inspection in relation to the recruitment of staff and governance documents. However, there were still concerns about the management of the service.
The provider had not had a registered manager in post since the last inspection. We were told a new manager had applied for a Care Quality Commission (CQC) Disclosure and Barring Service check, but we could not find a record of this application being submitted. The provider had not informed the CQC of changes to the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the regulated activity provided. This was only changed when prompted as part of the inspection. The provider was not being transparent about their most recent CQC rating on their website, this was rectified following our inspection.
The provider had an action plan in place to drive improvements following the last inspection. New audits had been devised but we were unable to assess the efficiency of these audits due to the provider supporting one person with minimal care and support needs. Staff had pre-employment checks in place, but we could not always verify who the references were from.
The care manager was the only staff member delivering care and support at the time of this inspection. Other staff were employed by the provider but were not actively working. All staff received training to underpin their knowledge in health and social care.
Care plans and risk assessments were in place for one person supported by the service. A relative told us they found staff caring and kind and felt their relative was well supported.
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 inadequate (published 16 March 2022) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found some improvements, but the provider remained in breach of regulations.
This service has been in Special Measures since 16 March 2022. During this inspection there was insufficient evidence to give an overall rating and the well-led key question remains inadequate.
Why we inspected
This comprehensive inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.
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 Preferred Home Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.
We have identified breaches in relation to the running of the service at this inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
Due to having insufficient evidence to give an overall rating, the service will continue to be in 'special measures'. We do this when services have been rated as 'Inadequate' in any Key Question over two consecutive comprehensive inspections. The ‘Inadequate’ rating does not need to be in the same question at each of these inspections for us to place services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.
If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.
For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.