Background to this inspection
Updated
10 August 2021
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection team on site consisted of one inspector. After the inspection, two experts by experience made telephone calls to people and their relatives. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using 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 houses or flats.
The service had a registered manager in place. This means that presently the provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
This inspection site visit took place on 07 July 2021 and was announced. We gave the service four days’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the provider. We used this information to plan our inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
During the inspection
We spoke with 16 people and 14 relatives to seek their views about the service. We spoke with the registered manager and three care staff. We reviewed records, including the care records of 10 people using the service, and the recruitment files and training records for four staff members. We also looked at records related to the management of the service such as quality audits, accident and incident records, and policies and procedures.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. This included looking at care plans, training data, staff supervisions and quality assurance records.
Updated
10 August 2021
About the service
Age UK Bromley and Greenwich is a domiciliary care agency that provides foot nail clipping and some nail clipping services to older adults, who live in the community. This is to support those who are unable to deal with this task themselves and to help them stay active and independent. 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. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection there were 848 people using the service.
Age UK Bromley and Greenwich also provides a Sitting Service which supports people for the first 24 hours after discharge from hospital and focuses on providing personal care and recuperation assistance to enable people to regain their confidence and independence in their home environment and prevent readmission to hospital. At the time of the inspection there were no people using this service.
People's experience of using this service
People said they felt safe and staff were kind and caring. There were appropriate safeguarding systems in place to protect people from the risk of abuse. People were protected against the risk of infection. Risks to people had been assessed, identified and they had appropriate risk management plans in place to minimise the risk of harm. The service followed appropriate recruitment processes to ensure people remained safe. Staff were supported through induction, training and supervision and there were sufficient numbers of suitably skilled staff deployed to meet people's needs. The service had systems in place to report, record and investigate accidents and incidents. The service was not responsible for any aspect of supporting people with medicines.
Assessments were carried out prior to people joining the service to ensure that the service could meet their needs. 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. People were involved in making decisions about their care and support needs. The service was not responsible for any aspect of supporting people with nutrition or hydration or end of life care.
Staff understood people's diverse needs and supported them in a caring way. People's privacy and dignity was respected. People's communication needs had been assessed and met. People and their relatives knew how to make a complaint if they were unhappy.
The provider had an effective system in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service and worked in
partnership with key organisations to plan and deliver an effective service. People and their relatives' views
had been sought to improve the quality of care and support provided
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 Inadequate (published 23 January 2020) and there were multiple breaches of our regulations.
The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment, person centred care and good governance.
We carried out a comprehensive inspection on 7 July 2021. At this inspection we found significant improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
The service has been in special measures since the last inspection. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that significant improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.
Why we inspected
We undertook this comprehensive inspection to check that the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.