Archived: Intrust Care Peterborough

Updated 30 May 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide 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 houses and flats. It provides a service to older people and younger disabled adults.

Not everyone using Intrust Care Peterborough receives the regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

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:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the registered manager is often out of the office. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Inspection site visit activity started on 11 April and ended on 25 April 2019. We visited the office location on 11 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Before our inspection we looked at all the information we held about the service including notifications. A notification is information about events that the registered persons are required, by law, to tell us about. We used this information to assist with planning the inspection. We also asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return before our visit. Providers are required to send us this key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We asked for feedback from the commissioners of people’s care, representatives from the local authority and Healthwatch Cambridge.

During our inspection visits on 11 and 25 April 2019, we spoke with three people and one relative. We also spoke with the registered manager, the office manager and four care staff. We looked at four people’s care records. We also looked at other files in relation to the management of the service. These included three staff recruitment and training records, complaints and compliments records, and records relating to the systems for monitoring the quality of the service.

After our visit on 11 April 2019 we wrote to the provider’s representative requiring them to provide additional information in relation to obtaining DBS checks for all staff.

Updated 30 May 2019

About the service:

Intrust Care Peterborough is a domiciliary care agency. It provided personal care to 16 younger and older people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

There was a lack of managerial oversight at the service and the provider’s monitoring process did not look effectively at systems throughout the service. This led to issues and shortfalls in many areas of the service, but significantly staff recruitment checks were not always fully obtained before new staff started working.

Risks to people were not always identified or managed safely. Some assessments had been completed but they did not identify actions to reduce risks or contain information to show the level of risk. People were cared for by staff who had not received training and had not had previous training checked to make sure they had the skills and knowledge needed.

Staff had details if they needed to contact health care professionals and made sure they asked people’s consent before caring for them. Staff members understood and complied with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). People were supported to have choice and control of their lives. Staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Staff were caring, kind and treated people with respect. People were listened to and were involved in their care. People’s right to privacy was maintained by the actions and care given by staff members.

People’s personal and health care needs were met and people were happy with the care they received. Some care plans were written in detail to provide guidance to staff, other care plans were not available and staff did not always have appropriate guidance to care for people. A complaints system was in place. Staff had some guidance about people’s end of life wishes, although information in care records was limited.

Improvement action: Please see the ‘action we have told the provider to take’ section towards the end of the report.

We have made a recommendation about guidance for staff about long term health conditions.

Rating at last inspection: This is the first ratings inspection for this service.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the service’s registration date.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as scheduled in our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

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