Background to this inspection
Updated
10 April 2021
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
This inspection was completed by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. 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
Complete Care Chorley is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people living in their own homes in Chorley and Leyland.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service three days notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We also needed to request copies of records, in advance, to minimise our time in the office due to the pandemic. We needed to give them some time to gather this information.
Inspection activity started on 8 December 2020 and ended on 14 December 2020. We visited the office location on 8 December 2020 and made phone calls to staff on 10 and 14 December 2020.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with six people who received personal care and the relatives of a further four people. We spoke with the branch manager and four members of staff. We reviewed four people's care records, medicine records and visit logs. We reviewed safeguarding and incidents logs and a variety of records related to the management of the service.
Updated
10 April 2021
About the service
Complete Care Services (Chorley) provide care and support to people in their own homes in both the Chorley and Leyland areas. At the time of the inspection there were 53 people receiving personal care.
People's experience of using this service and what we found
People's medicines had not always been managed safely. Some staff had made repeated errors with some medicines. People told us they felt safe as a result of the care they received and did not feel rushed by staff. People were supported by trained staff who had been recruited safely.
People had not always been protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. The provider had not always reported incidents to the local authority safeguarding team.
People told us they had confidence in the service and felt it was well organised. We found management arrangements were not effective and did not comply with the regulations. The manager had not ensured they had effective oversight of care practice and records. Staffing roles were unclear and we had not received information we requested as part of the inspection.
Rating at the last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement, published (9 January 2020). We had identified breaches of the regulations in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance. The provider had completed an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve to at least good. At this inspection we found not enough improvement had been made and the service remained in breach of the regulations. We will describe what we will do about the repeat requires improvement in the follow up section below.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on January 2020. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe management of medicines and good governance.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.
The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has remained the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Complete Care Chorley on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
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 discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding people and good governance. 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.
You can see what action we have asked the provider take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.