Karia Care Services

Karia Care Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received the regulated activity of 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. At the time of this inspection, the service was providing personal care to 5 people in their own homes.

People’s experience of the service and what we found

Systems were in place to protect people from the risk of abuse. Risk assessments had been carried out to identify the risks people faced. These included information about how to mitigate those risks.

There were enough staff working at the service to meet people's needs and the provider had robust staff recruitment practices in place. Medicines were managed in a safe way. Infection control and prevention systems were in place. Accidents and incidents were reviewed to see if any lessons could be learnt from them.

Assessments were carried out of people's needs prior to the provision of care to determine if their needs could be met at the service. Staff were supported through training and supervision to gain knowledge and skills to help them in their role.

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.

People and relatives told us staff were caring and that they treated people with respect. Staff understood how to support people in a way that promoted their privacy, independence and dignity. The service sought to meet people's needs in relation to equality and diversity.

Care plans were in place for people which set out how to meet their needs in a person-centred way. Systems were in place for dealing with complaints, and complaints had been dealt with accordingly.

Quality assurance and monitoring systems were in place to help drive improvements at the service. Staff told us there was an open and positive culture at the service. People were supported to express their views. The provider was aware of their legal obligations and worked with other agencies to develop best practice and share knowledge.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published on 22 April 2022) and there were breaches of regulation 9 (person-centred care), regulation 12 (safe care and treatment), regulation 17 (good governance), regulation 18 (staffing), and regulation 19 (fit and proper persons employed).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do to improve. At this inspection we found the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Karia Care Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating and when the service was last inspected.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 28 April 2022 and 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 regulation 9 (person-centred care), regulation 12 (safe care and treatment), regulation 17 (good governance), regulation 18 (staffing), and regulation 19 (fit and proper persons employed).

Follow Up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Karia Care Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received the regulated activity of 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. At the time of this inspection, the service was providing personal care to eight people in their own homes.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were not always supported in a way that was safe. We found concerns with the management of risks to people including risks associated with medical conditions such as hypertension, fibrillation, epilepsy and diabetes. Risk assessment were generic and was not personalised to each person.

Systems in the service did not enable suitable assessments of people's needs to be carried out when they were referred to the service. Accidents and incidents were recorded but not monitored to identify how the risks of reoccurrence could be minimised. Staff received training but it did not cover all areas of people's support needs to ensure they could perform their roles effectively.

There was a lack of provider and managerial oversight of the service. There was a failure by the provider to ensure robust governance arrangements were in place to monitor the safety and quality of the service. Shortfalls across the service such as with risk management, lack of oversight of accidents and incidents and limited oversight of safeguarding had not been identified prior to our inspection to ensure people were safe.

Care plans did not always promote personalised care and lacked information for staff to meet people's needs safely such as incorrect information about a person’s health condition. Care plans did not record people ethnicity and end of life preferences.

Pre-employment checks were not being completed robustly and in accordance with the provider’s recruitment policy to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

The provider failed to seek and act on feedback from all people and their families for the purposes of improving care. We recommend the provider reviews how it captures, records and follows up the concerns and complaints received in a more responsive manner. We also recommend that the provider seeks and follows best practice guidance on ensuring people's nutritional needs and preferences are identified and met. We will follow this up at the next inspection of this service.

People had the privacy they needed and were treated with dignity and respect. They were supported to be as independent as possible. Confidentiality of people's personal information was maintained. Staff were aware of their roles and responsibilities and felt supported by the management team.

Staff followed infection control procedures and people were protected from the risk of infections such as COVID-19. People and relatives told us staff were caring and they were treated with respect. Medicines were managed safely.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

This service was registered with us on 21 November 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This service had not previously been inspected and we wanted to check that people were receiving safe care and support.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, risk assessments, good governance, recruitment process and person-centred care at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations have been concluded.

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.