7 September 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Homcare1st is a domiciliary care agency providing support to people in their own homes. People with various care needs can use this service including people with physical disabilities, older people and people with dementia. At the time of inspection, 30 people received personal care from this service.
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
Medicines were not always handled and recorded correctly and safely. The providers recruitment of staff did not always include the required information. The visits were scheduled using an online system and this was overseen by the registered manager. People and relatives felt the staff supported them well. However, some improvements could be made regarding timings of the visits.
People reported they felt safe with the staff providing their support and care. Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents or allegations of abuse. The staff team followed procedures and practices to control the spread of infection using personal protective equipment. People’s risks were assessed and managed effectively.
The provider did not ensure systems were in place to oversee the service and ensure compliance with the fundamental standards. They did not ensure the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was informed of notifiable incidents in a timely manner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 20 February 2021).
Why we inspected
We undertook a targeted inspection to follow up on specific concerns received about the service. The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the recruitment of staff and staff training. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We found there was a concern with the recruitment of staff and ensuring staff received all mandatory training prior to providing care to people. Therefore, we widened the scope of the inspection to become a focused inspection looking at the key questions of safe and well-led.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Homecare1st 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 monitor the service and will take further action if needed.
We have identified breaches in relation to safe recruitment of staff, notifications of incidents, management of medicines, risk assessments and good governance at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.