Care Outlook (West Wickham)

Updated 9 January 2025

Care Outlook (West Wickham) is a domiciliary care agency. It is registered to provide personal care to adults and older people living in their own homes, including people with a physical disability, learning disability and dementia. 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.

The manager of the service was going through the registration process and became registered manager during the inspection process. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service operates. As the manager was undergoing the registration process during the course of our inspection, they are referred to as ‘manager’ throughout the body of the report.

At the time of the inspection there were 213 people receiving personal care. We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found the provider was not meeting the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Date of inspection: 19 June 2025 to 25 September 2025. This was an announced inspection. we looked at all the quality statements.

At the last inspection in April 2022, the service was rated Requires Improvement. We found 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing and governance.

We undertook this inspection to check the provider had followed the action plan they completed after the previous inspection. Following this comprehensive inspection the overall rating for the service is now requires improvement.

We found the provider remained in breach of the previous 3 legal regulations of safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance. In addition, we found 1 new breach in relation to need for consent.

We spoke to 39 people who used the service, 20 relatives, 10 care staff members, the registered manager, (became registered during the inspection process) regional manager, quality manager, medicines auditor, and care coordinator. We reviewed 14 people’s care records. We looked at 6 staff files in relation to recruitment and supervision. We also looked at policies and procedures and records related to the management of the service.

At this inspection we found risks were not always identified and mitigated. Safe medicine practices were not always promoted; staff were not always punctual.The service did not always within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Management governance and oversight and the provider’s quality assurance processes were not always effective. This was because they had failed to identify the concerns we found at this inspection.

People were safeguarded from potential abuse, people's independence was promoted, infection control was effectively managed, and staff were kind and caring.

We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

Updated 9 January 2025

We received mixed feedback from people and relatives about the quality of care they received. Themes for improvement included the timing of care calls, in respect of both length and punctuality, and the need for improved communication from the office. We received mixed feedback about staff having the right skills to do the job. People and relatives did not always know who the manager was. Although people and relatives we spoke with expressed, they were generally happy with their care, our inspection identified that elements of care did not meet the expected standards.

People told us when they received support from regular care staff, they felt supported in a positive way. People told us their needs were assessed prior to joining the service and that their needs and preferences were met. People and their relatives told us that staff were kind and caring. People told us they were supported with their nutrition needs and had access to healthcare professionals when needed.