Copthorne Complete Home Care Limited

Thamas Continental Home Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care 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.

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

We were not assured the provider was keeping people safe. Not all staff had been provided with training to provide safe care. We were not assured incidents and accidents involving people were consistently reported, recorded and investigated to promote learning and minimise the risk of reoccurrence. We were not assured staff were disposing of personal protective equipment (PPE) correctly. The provider had not adhered to safe recruitment practices. People’s medicines were not managed safely to ensure they were not placed at risk. The provider had not fully protected people from the risk of abuse and improper treatment.

People’s needs and choices had not been fully assessed to ensure effective outcomes of their care. People’s care plans did not include up-to-date information about their health needs. Staff had not received appropriate support, supervision and training to carry out their duties. The provider was not working in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People’s care records did not demonstrate they and their relatives were involved in decisions about the care provided. People were not always encouraged to be as independent as possible. Staff did not know people’s preferences, personal histories or background.

People did not have person-centred care plans in place to help staff ensure they received personalised care. The registered manager indicated they understood their responsibilities under the Accessible Information Standard. Despite having this knowledge, we found no evidence of the Accessible Information Standard being implemented to ensure service users received information in a way they understood it. The provider did not have a complaints policy or systems to record or respond to complaints.

The provider had failed to implement effective systems to assess, monitor and improve the service. The provider had not established robust systems and processes to enable staff to record and report accidents or incidents. Records were of poor quality. We were not assured the provider understood their associated responsibilities about the duty of candour. The provider had not sought feedback from people using the service. The provider did not seek feedback from staff. We saw no evidence that the provider had worked in partnership with any other agency.

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 03 January 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

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

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to the provision of person-centred care, safe care and treatment, protection of people from abuse, governance of the service, staffing training and supervision and unsafe recruitment practices.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

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

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it. And it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.