Walfinch West Suffolk

Walfinch West Suffolk is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. 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 this inspection there was 21 people using the service, 13 of these were receiving support with personal care.

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

Risk management plans required more information to ensure care staff were provided with the guidance they needed as to how risks to people’s health, welfare and safety were to be monitored and reduced.

Recruitment processes were not robust. Recruitment checks had not been completed on all new staff to check their suitability or competence to work with vulnerable people prior to commencing employment.

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. However, care and risk management planning did not include an assessment of people’s mental capacity. Staff were not provided with training in understanding their roles and responsibilities in relation to the Mental Capacity Act (2005) MCA.

People told us staff wore personal protective equipment. There were systems in place for regular testing of staff for COVID-19. The provider's oversight and quality monitoring systems needed improvement.

Staff demonstrated they knew people well and this was confirmed by people who used the service and relatives. However, we have recommended that communication plans are developed to support people to express their views and provide more detailed information as to their health care needs.

People told us they received their medicines as prescribed.

People told us staff were kind, caring and treated them with dignity. They told us they had not experienced any missed calls and if staff were running late, they were kept informed. People told us they received care and support from a consistent team of staff.

People knew how to contact the office and raise any concerns if needed.

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 18 March 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection as the service had not been inspected since registering.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements as we have identified breaches of Regulations in relation to provision of safe care and treatment, good governance and oversight of the service.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider and meet with them to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

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