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Archived: Hospital Intake Team

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

APT Care Limited, 24 Titan Court, Laporte Way, Luton, LU4 8EF 07585 808505

Provided and run by:
APT Care Limited

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 16 November 2021

This 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

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an 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

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 23 September 2021 and ended on 6 October 2021. We visited the office location on 23 September 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the service was registered. We sought feedback from the local authority, Healthwatch England and professionals who work with the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spoke with nine people who used the service and 14 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine members of staff including the managing director, the registered manager who was also the nominated individual and care workers. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 12 people’s care records. We looked at two staff files in relation to staff induction, training, competency assessments and staff supervision. 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 training data and quality assurance records. We spoke with one professional who regularly visited people using the service.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 16 November 2021

About the service

Hospital Intake Team is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people who need short term support for between 10 and 42 days when discharged from hospital.

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 the inspection the service were supporting 53 people, all of whom received the regulated activity of personal care.

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

People had not experienced any missed care visits but told us they often experienced an inconsistency of arrival and finish times. People told us timings meant the care they received felt rushed and impacted on not being provided with hot meals.

People told us they struggled to communicate with some staff due to language barriers and people and relatives felt that communication with office staff and out of hours support was poor.

People knew how to complain but had chosen in some cases not to, the registered manager was looking to improve in this area. Complaints received by the provider were thoroughly investigated and action taken to improve the care.

People were supported by staff who were trained to meet most of their needs and understood how to keep them safe. Some staff did not have a good understanding of specific conditions such as Dementia and Parkinson’s Disease.

Staff respected people’s choices, people told us they felt safe and staff were kind and caring in how they treated them. However, people often felt rushed which had an impact on how much time they were given to try and maintain independence.

People had their medicines monitored safely and staff were trained to ensure they understood best practice for medicines administration. Errors were quickly identified by senior managers and action taken to improve.

Staff received one to one and group support to develop and assess their skills. Safe recruitment practices were followed to ensure people were not supported by unsuitable staff.

People were offered the opportunity to receive free food and toiletries on discharge from hospital if they were unable to source these for themselves.

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.

Staff worked with external professionals, including specialists supporting people receiving end of life care, to make sure people had everything they needed to live in a dignified way.

We have made a recommendation about improving consistency of times for care visits, provision of food and drink, and improved communication and staff training.

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 ‘inspected but not rated’ (published 1 April 2021).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.