Lakeland Care & Support Services Limited

Updated 21 May 2021

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 carried out by two inspectors and two Experts 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, bungalows and flats. The service also provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission at the time of our inspection. The previous registered manager had left in February 2020. The provider had appointed a manager and they were in the process of applying for registration. This had been delayed due to events outside of the provider’s control. Registered managers are 'registered persons'. 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. The provider and senior managers maintained oversight of the quality of the service.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 10 March 2021 and ended on 21 April 2021. We visited the office location on 10 March 2021 and the extra care housing complex on 17 March 2021. We contacted people who used the service and staff by telephone and email after our visits.

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. 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 three members of the management team and looked at the care records for nine people. We looked at five staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We also looked at a range of records relating to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We contacted four people who used the service and the relatives of 25 people who used the service to gather their views. We also contacted nine care staff to gather their views of the service. We reviewed additional evidence we had asked the provider to send us.

Updated 21 May 2021

About the service

Lakeland Care & Support Services Limited provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the Furness and Millom districts of Cumbria. The service also supports people living in an extra care housing complex in Millom. There were 217 people receiving support at the time of our inspection.

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.

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

People were protected from abuse. The staff were trained in how to identify and report concerns about people’s safety. Risks to people’s safety had been identified and managed. The staff had completed training in how to provide people’s care in a safe way. There were enough staff to support people. The staff supported people, as they needed, to take their medicines. The staff were trained in infection control and how to use personal protective equipment. They followed infection prevention and control procedures to protect themselves and people they cared for from the risk of infection. The provider had systems in place to ensure lessons were learnt from any incidents to ensure people were safe.

People received care that met their needs and took account of their wishes. The provider listened to the views of people who used the service, their families and staff to identify how the service could be improved. People said they would recommend the service. The staff worked with other services which supported individuals, to ensure people received the care and support they needed.

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 good, (report published 11 April 2018).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to how the provider ensured people were protected against the risk of abuse. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe section of this full report.

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.