- Homecare service
Royle Care Limited
Report from 18 July 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 23rd July 2025 to September 5th, 2025. The service is a Domiciliary Care Agency registered to provide personal care. People were supported with their personal care needs to enable them to live in their own homes and promote their independence. We carried out a responsive assessment to consider concerns raised in relation to late, missed calls, carer behaviour and lack of responsiveness to complaints. We found the provider in breach of 2 legal regulations relating to complaints and informing CQC of events they were required to notify to us.
At the time of the inspection the service supported 43 people with personal care. The service provided safe care, and people were protected from the risk of abuse. Staff understood and managed risks. Staff were recruited safely, were appropriately trained and received support and supervision. People’s needs were assessed taking account of people’s communication, personal and health needs. People were supported to be independent and have choice and control over their lives. People were treated as individuals and staff treated them with kindness, compassion, and dignity. Medicines were managed safely. People received their medicines as prescribed by staff who were trained and assessed as competent to do so.
The service monitored people’s health and took action to share any concerns with the wider multidisciplinary teams as required. People were treated as individuals and staff treated them with kindness, compassion, and dignity.
Several people told us that staff were sometimes late to their calls and that they were not always contacted by the office to let tell them know the carer would be late and sometimes staff did not stay the entire length of the call. This feedback was given to the provider who put in place measures to increase the monitoring of the electronic call monitoring system. This will inform the office if a carer has not logged on at a call within 30 minutes of the allocated call time. The provider also increased the number of unannounced checks of care calls to monitor the quality of the care and the length of time the staff member is at the call. We found no evidence of missed calls.
The provider had quality monitoring systems in place, but they lacked detailed information to identify themes and drive improvement. The provider was in the process of developing more robust and detailed auditing tools. The provider was not always knowledgeable about their regulatory responsibilities regarding submitting notifications to the CQC and did not always submit notifications to the CQC when required. Some people told us that when they had made a complaint, they did not receive a response within the timescales of the providers complaints policy and they had not received a full response to their complaint. The provider incidents and safeguarding records showed limited details of the investigation, actions taken, outcome and lessons learnt.
The registered manager was visible and supportive, helping staff develop in their roles. People were supported by staff who felt valued by the management team.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the findings and to enable us to monitor the service.
People's experience of this service
People told us that they felt safe and well supported by staff who understood their needs. They told us that carers were kind and respectful. One person told us “The carers we have are as good as gold.” People gave mixed feedback regarding the timekeeping of the carers with some people saying that carers were sometimes late or too early and they did not stay the whole length of the call. One person said, “Most times they’re on time but sometimes they’re late if they get held up, they don’t let you know if they’re late and I’ll usually just wait.” However, another person said Royle Care Limited would contact them if they were very late. This feedback was given to the provider who stated that they were monitoring timekeeping and the length of time carers stayed at calls more closely.
Most people described the carers as caring, one person said, “Staff are kind and respectful” another person said “‘Some of the carers are very caring and some go above and beyond.”
People knew how to contact the provider and people said that they were responsive when they raised an issue and most people told us that they thought the service was well managed.