Archived: Gain Healthcare Ltd

Updated 9 December 2021

The inspection

This was a targeted inspection to check specific concerns we had received about the service including safe management of medicines and lack of training and recruitment processes for new staff.

Inspection team

Two inspectors carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in their own homes. This inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.

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 a short period notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 3 February 2021 and ended on 15 February 2021. We visited the office location on 3 February 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since they had registered. 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. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager who is also the nominated individual. 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 one person’s care and medicines records. We looked at two care staff records including recruitment, training and supervision records. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures.

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 sought feedback from the commissioning team at the local authority.

Updated 9 December 2021

About the service

Gain Healthcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people aged 18 and over. 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. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection, only one person was receiving support with personal care.

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

People were not always safe. Risks to individuals were not appropriately assessed and managed.

Medicines were not managed safely.

Safeguarding procedures were not consistently followed.

There were not always enough staff to meet people’s needs.

The provider's quality management systems were not effective and did not identify areas where the service needed to improve. The provider and registered manager did not demonstrate they understood their legal responsibilities.

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

Rating at last inspection: This service was registered with us on 10/08/2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We undertook this targeted inspection to follow up on specific concerns we received about the service including safe management of medicines and lack of training and recruitment processes for new staff. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe and Well Led sections of this full report.

Enforcement: We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We identified breaches of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These were in regulation 12 Safe care and treatment; regulation 17 Good governance and regulation 18 Staffing. We also identified a breach of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. This was regulation 12 Statement of Purpose.

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

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.