11 January 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Kinver Care is a domiciliary care agency who provided personal care to 83 people at the time of the inspection across Kinver and Walsall and supports children, younger adults and older people, some of whom may have a physical disability, a sensory impairment or dementia. Immediately after the inspection, the number of people being supported reduced to 64 as the provider no longer continued to support people in the Kinver area.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The management team had experienced significant challenges when scheduling people's care calls as there were not always enough staff available to consistently provide cover. There had been a sudden reduction in numbers of permanent staff in a short period of time, particularly in the Kinver and Wombourne areas which meant people were receiving support from a high number of agency staff. This had resulted in some missed and late calls.
Electronic care plans were in place, however some of the information about people’s needs were not detailed in full, or there were some discrepancies in the information recorded. This meant staff did not always have the required information to support people in the most effective way.
Mostly, medicines were managed safely however some medicines were not always recorded accurately in people’s care plans. Safeguarding concerns were raised by staff as they had received relevant training and actions had been taken to address the concerns raised. Most people told us they felt safe being supported by Kinver Care.
Mechanisms for auditing were in place, but they needed to be strengthened as they had not identified all of the issues we identified during the inspection.
The provider took action in response to our feedback about the issues we found and did take remedial actions to mitigate the risk of people being exposed to risk or harm.
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.
Systems were in place to ensure good infection prevention and control practice. People received the opportunity to feedback about the care they received. Many members of staff spoke highly of the provider and registered manager and said they felt supported and had no concerns.
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 the service under the previous provider at the previous premises was good (published on 29 July 2021).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to staffing and general concerns about the care people received. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. 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. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Kinver Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.