Archived: Initial Care Services (ICS) Limited

Initial Care Services (ICS) Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes, including people with dementia, learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder or physical disability. At the time of the inspection visit the service supported one person.

People’s experience of using this service:

This was the first inspection of the service. The provider, who was also the registered manager, was new to their role and had not always acted in line with their responsibilities as the registered individual. They had not always followed best practice, or their own policies to improve the quality and safety of the service. The provider had limited understanding of their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and some checks to monitor the quality of the service were not effective. Important events had not been fully managed to mitigate risks to people.

The provider had not followed their own recruitment policy in a timely way to ensure people who used the service were continually protected from staff who may not be suitable to work alone with vulnerable people. They had not ensured all staff had received training in core areas to provide them with adequate experience to do their job effectively.

People were involved in planning their care with support from staff. People had access to support from staff when needed and they were supported to have enough to eat and drink to maintain their well-being. Staff supported people to obtain advice from healthcare professionals and followed safe infection control practices. People received their medicines as prescribed.

People told us staff understood the importance of supporting people with empathy and compassion and people’s independence was promoted wherever possible.

People understood how to complain if they wanted to, however issues were not always investigated in accordance with the provider’s policy.

We reported that the registered provider was in breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These were:

Regulation 12 Regulated Activities Regulations 2014 – Safe care and treatment

Regulation 17 Regulated Activities Regulations 2014 – Good governance

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Rating at last inspection:

This service was registered with us on 26 March 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned comprehensive inspection that was scheduled to take place in line with Care Quality Commission scheduling guidelines for adult social care services.

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 also meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work alongside the provider to monitor their progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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