We carried out a review of the data available to us about Aware Care Limited on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Aware Care Limited, you can give feedback on this service.
Aware Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 54 people using the service.
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. Fifty-Two people were receiving a regulated activity from the provider.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Staff training was not always up to date. However, we found no evidence this impacted on people and the registered manager was working promptly to improve training compliance.
We have made a recommendation the provider continues to promote full compliance with training.
People spoke positively about the care they received from the staff team and the registered manager.
People were protected from the risk of abuse by staff who were knowledgeable about safeguarding. One staff member said, “We protect vulnerable people from harm and abuse.” People’s risks were appropriately assessed, and staff had clear guidance to manage identified risks. The provider followed safe recruitment practices, using a comprehensive values-based recruitment process. People received the support they needed to manage their medicines safely. Staff followed infection control practices effectively. One person said, “They [staff] wear their PPE just like when it was COVID times.” Accidents and incidents were appropriately reviewed, and lessons learnt were shared with staff.
People and staff spoke positively about the culture of the service and the registered manager. Every person and relative we spoke with knew the registered manager by name. One relative said, “It all just seems very efficient, the whole organisation, we’ve been very lucky to have found them.” The registered manager and staff understood the responsibilities of their role. The provider had quality assurance processes in place to review the quality performance and drive service improvement. Audits were robust, including frequent spot checks on the care provided by staff.
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 requires improvement (14 September 2019) and there were breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced focused inspection of this service on 6 August 2019. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider has now evidenced what they have done to improve.
We undertook this focused inspection to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Aware Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Aware Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing support with personal care to people living in their own homes. 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. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 23 people with the regulated activity of personal care.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Recruitment records did not show the service had followed the necessary practices which have been designed to ensure people were protected from harm.
Staff understood how to keep people in their care safe from harm. Where risks to individuals had been identified measures had been put in place to reduce or eliminate those risks. Safe systems were in place to ensure people got their medicines at the right times.
People had capacity to consent and this was recorded in their care plans. The registered manager was aware if people lacked mental capacity to consent they needed to support people to have maximum choice and control of their lives and support people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. Policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People received support from staff who were kind and caring. People were involved in making decisions about their care and were treated with dignity and respect. People were encouraged to be independent and their equality and diversity needs were respected.
People’s care needs were assessed before a service was offered, to make sure the service would be able to meet their needs. Care plans were developed to make sure staff knew what they needed to do to meet those needs and provide person centred care. A complaints procedure was in place although there had been no complaints.
Quality assurance processes had not yet been embedded into practice to evidence the quality of the service provided. Everyone we spoke with was happy with the service provided and the quality of the care staff.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 23/08/2018 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the date the service registered with CQC.
Enforcement
We have identified a breach in relation to fit and proper persons employed. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider. 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.