Aegis Care Solutions

Aegis Care Solutions is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults living in their own home. During our inspection visit, the service was caring for 74 people. 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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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

Right Support:

¿ People were respected and valued as individuals.

¿ People and relatives were involved in planning care.

¿ 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. However, the provider needed to improve the recording of relevant discussions and decisions about the care of people who lacked capacity to make decisions.

Right Care:

¿ People and relatives were positive about the care and support received.

¿ Most risks to people’s care were assessed and measures put in place to manage these.

¿ The management team were aware of their safeguarding responsibilities; appropriate referrals had been made when required.

¿ Medicines were well managed.

Right Culture:

¿ Culture at the service did not always encourage sharing and learning. Staff did not always feel comfortable raising concerns to management or if concerns were raised that these would not be acted up. Staff were not always aware of the whistleblowing procedures or regularly supported through one-to-one supervision sessions.

¿ There were several quality assurance systems in place, we found examples where these had been effective but also examples where these had not been effective. We made a recommendation in relation to this area.

¿ Most areas of recruitment were managed safely but we found examples of additional improvements required. We made a recommendation in relation to safe recruitment.

¿ Staff were offered relevant training.

¿ The management team were receptive to the inspection process and responsive to the issues we raised.

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 good (published on 21 August 2019).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing and management. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We made 2 recommendations in relation to recruitment and good governance.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Aegis Care Solutions offers domiciliary care and support to a range of people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection visit the service supported six people who received personal care.

People’s experience of using the service

People were supported safely and protected from harm. There were systems in place to reduce the risk of abuse and to assess and monitor potential risks to people.

The management of medicines was safe. Risk assessments had been completed and staff helped people to use equipment to support their independence. Incidents and accidents were managed effectively; lessons were learned to reduce the risk of further occurrences.

There were enough skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of people who used the service. Recruitment checks were completed on new staff to ensure they were suitable to support people who used the service. A comprehensive induction and training programme was completed by all staff.

People were well cared for by staff who treated them with respect and dignity. People were involved in their care, and what they did on a day to day basis. People's right to privacy was maintained through the actions and care given by staff members.

Staff understood people’s likes, dislikes and preferences and people were offered choices about their care.

Where required, people were supported to have sufficient food and drink and their health needs were regularly monitored. Staff followed the advice health care professionals gave them.

Staff understood their responsibilities in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive was possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

A complaints system was in place and complaints were managed effectively. Relatives told us they knew how to complain if needed.

The provider had embedded quality assurance systems to monitor the quality and safety of the care provided. People were asked for their views and their suggestions were used to improve the service.

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

Rating at last inspection: This was the providers first inspection.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection.

Follow up

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