Background to this inspection
Updated
6 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
The inspection was completed by one inspector and an Expert 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 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.At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 24 hours’ 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 21 March 2022 and ended on 24 March 2022. We visited the location’s office on 21 March 2022.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We sought feedback from the local authority and reviewed notifications the provider had submitted about events within the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with both the registered manager who was also the provider, and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service.
We reviewed a range of records. These included four people's care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision.
After the inspection
We spoke with seven people who use the service, four relatives and four care staff. We also reviewed records related to the management of the service.
Updated
6 April 2022
About the service
Caremaid Services Hampshire is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. They were providing the regulated activity of personal care to 27 people on the day of the site visit.
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 and their relatives provided positive feedback about the service. Their comments included, “The agency does really well at providing kind and helpful carers” and “The agency does really well at sending the same carers.”
The provider had effective recruitment processes, to ensure only suitable staff were recruited and all records of pre-employment checks were available. The provider had systems and processes in place to protect people from the risk of abuse. Potential risks to people had been assessed and processes were in place to manage them safely. The provider ensured people received their medicines safely from trained and competent staff. People were protected from the risk of acquiring an infection.
Staff treated people kindly and compassionately and respected their privacy and dignity. People were supported to be involved in making decisions about their care.
There was increased monitoring of the culture of the service to ensure all staff displayed the values and behaviours the provider expected. The provider ensured the quality of the service was monitored and action was taken to address any issues identified. Learning from incidents was shared with staff. The provider regularly sought the views of people and staff about the care provided.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 16 September 2021).
At our last inspection we recommended the provider review closed culture guidance. At this inspection we found the provider had taken action to improve the culture of the service.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 19 July 2021. A breach of legal requirements was found related to fit and proper persons employed. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to meet the regulation.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Caring and Well-led.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Caremaid Services Hampshire on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.