Archived: JK Caring for You

Updated 5 February 2020

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 completed by two inspectors and one Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

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 had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

Inspection activity started on 20 November 2019 and ended on 28 November 2019. We visited the office location on 20 and 28 November 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 11 people who used the service and five relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 10 members of staff including care staff, office staff, the provider and registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included seven people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at care records and quality assurance records. We also spoke with professionals from the local authority.

Updated 5 February 2020

About the service

JK Caring for You is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of our inspection 18 people were using the service.

Not everyone who uses this type of service receives 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 continued to put people at risk due to poor management of medicines.

The provider had not improved on all concerns we found at previous inspection. The provider had failed to make enough improvement to their quality assurance systems and poor practice had not been identified. This continued to put people at risk of harm. Following our inspection, because of the provider’s poor financial stability, the local authority had removed the people they funded care for from the service. The provider had also moved offices without the prior approval from us.

The provider had recently reduced the size of the service which had improved the timeliness of people’s care calls. However, we continued to find people with consistently late calls which had not been spotted by managers.

Improvement had been made to how concerns about people’s safety were managed. However, the provider had not recognised some staff practices were unsafe.

Some improvements had been made to people’s care plans which were now more focused on the person. However, further improvement was needed to ensure people’s equality, diversity and human rights were fully represented in care plans.

Staff received the training they needed to support people but did not always put this learning into practice. People were supported to have enough to eat and drink, access healthcare where needed and other health and social care services.

People sometimes felt rushed by staff but thought they were kind and caring. Not everyone felt involved in their care with regards to call times. Staff promoted people’s independence and respected their privacy.

Improvement had been made to how the provider managed complaints and concerns from people and their relatives.

People had opportunities to give their opinions about the care they received and felt there had been recent overall improvement in the service.

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.

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 inadequate (published 14 August 2019), and there were multiple breaches of regulation and the service continued to be in special measures. At this inspection enough improvement had not been made and the provider was still in breach of regulations.

Following our last inspection we imposed a condition on the provider's registration so they could not accept any new care packages, including any increases to current care packages being provided, without our approval.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Enforcement

All outstanding enforcement against this provider is now concluded. All representations and appeals have been concluded.

Please see the action we have taken at the end of this report.