Comfort Call- Leeds

Updated 1 January 2021

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

The inspection was carried out by three inspectors and two Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using a service 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 homes. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. The inspection activity started on 3 November and ended on 3 December 2020. We visited the office location on 19 November 2020.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 contacted Healthwatch to see if they had received feedback about the service and they shared the information they had received. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 18 people who used the service and 14 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 19 members of staff including the registered manager, regional manager, and support workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included nine care records and multiple medication records. We looked at six staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 1 January 2021

About the service

Comfort Call - Leeds is a domiciliary care agency and provides care and support to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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. Comfort Call had expanded in 2020 by taking over another domiciliary care agency. The service was supporting 320 people with the regulated activity 'personal care'.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Risks to people’s care were not always fully assessed, planned for or documented. Electronic care plans lacked detailed in relation to specific areas of people's care and needs. Records contained pre-populated information, which was not accurate or person-centred. This meant staff who did not know people well had limited information to guide them.

People told us there were areas of their support that needed to improve. These included shortened call times, not always knowing what time and who would be providing their care and some concerns about staff moving and handling practices. The quality assurance phone calls made by staff had not identified this which meant the provider was unaware of their concerns.

The provider had a good electronic system in place to enable remote monitoring of all aspects of the service provided. The most recent audit showed the service was working well and had achieved a high score in terms of quality. The interrogation of information was failing to identify the need to improve areas of care such as risk assessment and care planning.

People and their relatives shared positive feedback about their regular staff being person centred in their approach, as they had built up a relationship with them and knew them well.

People were protected from the risk of infection and plans were in place to mitigate the increased risks from the current Covid-19 pandemic. Staff followed best practice in terms of infection control procedures. Staff were provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and people told us they wore this when providing care.

Staff were trained in the administration of medicines and had their competency assessed following training. The provider used an electronic medication administration record and monitored staff practice in relation to administering people’s medicines.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 10 July 2019)

Why we inspected

CQC had received concerns in relation to late and short calls. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has changed from Good to Requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report. We found breaches in safe care and treatment although there was no evidence during this inspection that people had been harmed from this concern. Please see the safe 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 Comfort Call-Leeds on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

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.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.