Archived: A&A Healthcare Services Ltd

Updated 6 October 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

The 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 and flats.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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 service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission.

Notice of inspection

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

Inspection activity started on 5 September 2022 and ended on September 2022. We visited the office on 5 September 2022. Telephone calls were made offsite to relatives and staff.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed our systems and information we held about the service. 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 took this into account when we inspected the service and made judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two relatives about their experience of A & A Healthcare Services Ltd. We spoke with the manager and four staff. We reviewed a range of records which included care plans, risk assessments, medication records for two people and three staff records. We also viewed some of the provider's policies and procedures, training data, quality assurance records, management monitoring and oversight records.

Updated 6 October 2022

A & A Healthcare Services Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people in their own homes. CQC only inspects where people receive a regulated activity of personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do receive personal care, we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of inspection there were seven people who used the service of which two people received personal care. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, A & A Healthcare Services Ltd provided support with social inclusion for some people with a learning disability and /or autistic people but did not provide them with personal care. However, we assessed the care provision under right support, right care, right culture, as it registered as a specialist service for this population group. The provider was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. We signposted the provider to relevant information.

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

The service was being managed on a day to day basis by an acting manager and governance systems were in place to provide oversight of the service and its performance. Audits and spot checks were undertaken, and information collated to identify shortfalls. The systems were not however robust, and they had not identified some of the shortfalls we found such as gaps in staff training and knowledge. We have made a recommendation about strengthening these processes.

Right Support: Staff skills and knowledge needed further development in key areas to support people effectively and in line with the principles of Right support, right care and right culture.

Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care: Care was person-centred and promoted people's dignity and privacy.

Right Culture: Improvements were needed in staff training and governance to ensure the attitudes and behaviours of management and staff ensured people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.

We have made a recommendation the provider fully assesses the care and support provision at A & A Healthcare Services Ltd to embed the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Risks to people had been identified and assessed. People received their medicines as prescribed.

People were supported by staff who had been safely recruited and attended care and support visits when they were supposed to. Staff knew when and where staff were visiting, as their rotas were planned in advance.

Staff received training when they commenced employment but there were gaps in the training provision and in staff knowledge and practice, in areas such as infection control. We have a made a recommendation about staff training.

People were supported to eat and drink where they required this assistance. There were clear arrangements in place to access emergency health support when this was required.

People's relatives were generally complimentary about the care provided and told us that people were respected and included as much as they wanted to be in their care delivery.

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 the service at the previous premises was good, published on 09 August 2018.

This is the first inspection for this service at this location.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

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