Milberry Care Agency

Milberry Care Agency is a domiciliary care agency providing care to people in their own homes.

The service was supporting four people at the time of the inspection.

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

We found staff recruitment checks were not always carried out fully, and there were no records of staff interviews.

There were insufficient risk assessments in place to keep people safe from harm.

People’s needs were assessed however there was a lack of personalised information in care plans.

Medicines were managed safely. Staff received training and supervision.

Staff were caring and supported people’s needs. People were involved in making decisions about their care. People’s privacy and dignity was maintained, and staff treated people with respect.

People were supported to maintain their independence.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. There was no end of life planning or staff training. We have recommended the service records people’s end of life wishes relating to protected characteristics, culture and spiritual needs.

The service worked well with other agencies. The service was open and understood duty of candour. There were audits in place, but actions were not always clearly followed up for improvements to be shown. The management team were receptive to feedback throughout the inspection and responded quickly to concerns. They told us they were committed to improving the service.

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

This service was registered with us on 10 October 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on our schedule for new services.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe and Well-led sections of this full report. We found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This related to insufficient checks around staff recruitment.

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

Follow up

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