Hope Care Support Limited

Updated 10 July 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

The inspection was undertaken by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This meant the provider was solely responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 25 May 2021 and ended on 03 June 2021. We visited the office location on 03 June 2021.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since initial registration. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with a person who used the service and a relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with a company director, the manager and received feedback from three care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included care records and risk assessments. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. Records relating to the management and oversight of the service, were not available to inspect.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 10 July 2021

About the service

Hope Care Support is a domiciliary care service providing personal care and support to two people at the time of the inspection.

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

The provider did not have an effective system to monitor and assess the quality and safety of the service people received. Record keeping in areas such as recruitment, care planning, risk management, staff support, and supervision was not robust and did not support the delivery of safe and effective care. There was no clear and effective process for consulting people and relatives about changes to care.

The provider had not undertaken all the required checks to support safe recruitment of staff. The provider did not have a robust staff training programme to ensure all staff new to care completed training to the required standard. The provider did not ensure that staff were skilled and competent to undertake their role safely and effectively.

People’s care plans did not include sufficient detail about their needs and choices to ensure staff had the guidance to deliver consistent person-centred care. Staff knew about risks to people’s safety and wellbeing. However, information about risks to people was not always available to guide staff should they need to rely on this.

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. The provider had a complaints and compliments policy, people had a copy of the policy in their homes to access if needed. The service did not support people with end of life needs currently.

Staff used personal protective equipment (PPE) and undertook regular testing for COVID-19 in line with government guidance. The management team provided a 24 hour on-call service and provided emergency cover if needed for staff sickness or other such events. Care workers undertook some tasks above and beyond the basic care commissioned.

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 06 March 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to check 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.

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 staff recruitment processes, staff support, supervision and training arrangements and the lack of management oversight, quality assurance processes and poor record keeping at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to 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 request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. 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.