Archived: Castlerock Recruitment Group Limited

Updated 17 August 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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.

This inspection took place on 30 June 2015 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service; we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

The inspection team consisted of two adult social care inspectors who visited the provider’s premises and an expert by experience, with a background in care of older adults, who spoke by telephone to people who used the service 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.

At the time of our inspection there were 30 people using the service. We spoke on the telephone with two people who used the service and ten relatives of people who used the service. We spoke with five members of staff, the manager and the quality lead. We also visited the provider’s office and spent some time looking at documents and records that related to people’s care and the management of the service. We looked at five people’s care and support plans.

Before our inspection, we reviewed all the information we held about the home, including previous inspection reports. We contacted the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch feedback stated they had no comments or concerns. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

Updated 17 August 2015

This was an announced inspection carried out on 30 June 2015. At the last inspection in January 2014 we found the provider met the regulations we looked at.

Castlerock Recruitment Group Limited provides care and support to people in their own home. The office is based in the Burley Road area of Leeds and they provide support to people in the surrounding area.

At the time of this inspection there was a manager in post but they were not yet registered. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were not properly safeguarded from harm as we found during our visit that an allegation of neglect had not been reported to CQC. Our records showed that the provider had also been reminded on previous occasions when notifications regarding alleged abuse had not been sent to us. Staff we spoke with were aware of what constituted abuse or neglect and were aware of the need to report any concerns promptly to the manager.

There were not always effective systems in place to respond appropriately to complaints and comments made by people who used the service or people acting on their behalf. Relatives of people who used the service were not confident that their comments and complaints were always listened to and dealt with effectively to improve the service.

People told us they felt safe using the service and they overall received their calls on time. However people told us they were concerned at the high turnover of staff which meant they did not always get regular, consistent care workers.

Overall, recruitment procedures were effective. However, one staff member had commenced work without the provider having completed an up to date status check on their Disclosure and Barring Service check. Arrangements were made to rectify this to make sure people were protected by safe recruitment procedures.

People told us they were happy with the support they received from care workers and got on well with them. Staff were described as caring and kind. They said they were involved in planning their care and support needs.

Most staff said they felt supported by the manager and the organisation. However some staff said morale was low as the organisation was not responsive to concerns raised about working conditions. Staff had had induction training before they commenced work unaccompanied. They said they had opportunity to discuss their job role. Staff said they received good training to enable them to carry out their job effectively.

Staff were trained to assist or prompt people with their medication. They said they felt confident to deal with any emergencies if they arose. There were systems in place to ensure people’s nutritional and hydration needs were met.

Systems were in place to monitor the quality and safety of service provision and we saw records which indicated the service had improved through this monitoring. However, fully effective systems were not in place to ensure continuous improvement in the service. It was not clear from action plans if areas identified as needing improvement were addressed.

We found the service was in breach of two of the regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.