Kingfisher Care Services

Kingfisher Care Services is a domiciliary care service providing support to people 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 visit there were 52 people in receipt of the regulated activity of personal care.

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

We received mixed feedback from people and their relatives about how safe and cared for they felt. Some people highly praised their regular staff when talking about their care experiences and safety, while others said their care calls felt rushed, and they had not always experienced a caring attitude from some staff.

The provider had made improvements in care and risk planning documentation. However, further improvements were required as not always ensured staff had all the information required about some people’s individual health and physical needs to support staff’s knowledge of how to respond to reduce risks.

It was unclear how the provider consistently assured themselves staff continue to be competent when assisting people with their physical needs including the use of equipment. We have made a recommendation the provider considers how they are regularly checking staff’s competency in relation to meeting people’s physical needs in line with current guidance and best practice.

People were protected from the risk of abuse and staff understood their responsibility to protect people from the risk of abuse or neglect. However, there was one concern the provider had not reported to the local authority for further investigation.

There were some quality monitoring systems in place and the provider had used these to make improvements following our last inspection. However, the provider was aware these required strengthening such as, improvements in the oversight of people’s care calls through the electronic system the provider had introduced to ensure people always experienced good outcomes.

The provider had consistently followed safe recruitment processes to help make sure they only employed suitable staff. Procedures were in place to support people with their medicines.

There were arrangements in place for preventing and controlling infection, and the provider had implemented these in line with national guidance.

Staff had received the training they required to be able to effectively support people. Overall staff felt supported by the provider, care manager and other office and senior staff who were always available to them.

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 supported to eat and drink and to access health care services where required. A person’s care call to support them with eating and drinking had been missed. This was an oversight and the provider had acted at the time and apologies were made in line with the providers duty of candour.

People were involved in making decisions about their care and support and; staff understood people's diverse needs. 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 worked in partnership with health and social care professionals to provide joined up care.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 05 February 2020).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Kingfisher Care Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Follow up

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

Kingfisher Care Service is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. There were 42 people receiving personal care at the time of the inspection.

Not everyone who uses 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

Peoples risk assessment and management plans were inconsistent. Some required more detailed information. Where incidents were occurring, these were not consistently monitored and learning applied.

People were not receiving support at their preferred times planned times and they were not supported by a consistent staff group. People told us they were not consistently involved in reviewing their care and support.

Systems were in place to monitor the service, however there were some areas of improvement which had not been identified through these systems.

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 did not consistently demonstrate this was supported. We have made a recommendation about the recording practices of the service.

People had their needs assessed and plans put in place to meet them. People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse. People were supported to have their medicines administered as prescribed. People were protected from the risk of cross infection.

People were supported to maintain their health. People were supported to eat and drink safely. People were able to make choices and staff were kind to people. People were supported to consider their wishes for at the end of their life.

The provider encouraged partnership working with other agencies and adopted a learning culture. Staff told us they were supported by the provider.

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 10/10/2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.