G&C HEALTHCARE LTD

Updated 28 April 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to be sure that the registered manager would be at the registered office to facilitate the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 28 February 2022 and ended on 10 March 2022. We visited the location’s office on 01 March 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since their registration in October 2020. We asked the local authority and Healthwatch for any information they had which would aid our inspection. Local authorities, together with other agencies may have responsibility for funding people who used the service and monitoring its quality. 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 this information to plan our inspection.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with nine people who used the service or their relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with seven members of support staff, including care assistants, two care coordinators and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and extracts from others. We looked at five staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies, procedures and audit documents.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. The manager provided us with requested documents to demonstrate training, audits and feedback received directly to the agency about the quality of the service provided.

Updated 28 April 2022

G&C Healthcare Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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. The service was supporting 27 people at the time of our inspection. 26 people were supported with their personal care.

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

Overall people who used the service were satisfied with the care and support they received however the timing of people’ calls required improvement.

Quality assurance and service auditing processes were in place although these were not always effective in detailing areas where improvement was needed.

Medication procedures needed improving to ensure checks were carried out to identify safe practice and protocols were required to ensure medicines were given as and when required.

Recruitment practices were not robust enough to demonstrate a safe recruitment process and this meant staff may not be suitable or fit to work with the people supported by the agency.

People, and their relatives, were involved in their need’s assessment and the development of their care plans. Choices and preferences were documented so staff could deliver person centred care. Overall, people spoke highly of their staff teams and although communication was a challenge at times, people said staff delivered the care they were assessed to receive and sometimes provided additional support.

Staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE), and used it appropriately to keep people safe.

People’s dignity and privacy was respected, and staff told us how they listened to people and delivered care and support in line with their wishes.

Staff felt well supported and well trained. They felt listened to and had opportunities to seek advice and support.

Risk assessments were in place to reduce or mitigate identified risks and these could be updated as people’s needs changed, as could care plans.

Staff had a good understanding of how to safeguard people from the risk of potential harm. People’s complaints were listened to and acted upon. The registered manager was open and transparent and took opportunities to ask people about the service they received in order to improve people’s experiences of care.

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

This service was registered with us on 31 October 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We carried out this inspection after we received concerns from the local authority after they had carried out an unannounced visit.

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

Follow up

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