Archived: Bio Luminuex Health Care

Updated 26 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 completed 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.

At the time of our inspection there were two registered managers in post. We only met one of them and they facilitated the inspection. They confirmed the other registered manager remained involved with the day to day management of the service.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service a short notice period 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we held about this service including information they had submitted to us as part of our monitoring activities. We sought feedback from commissioning authorities. 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 information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place in March 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we met the area and digital manager, and one of the registered managers. We spoke with three relatives of people who received care. We were unable to communicate directly with people who used the service but family members agreed to interpret for us and provided feedback about their and their loved ones’ experience of care. We spoke with three care workers. We reviewed care files for three people including care plans, risk assessments and records of care. We reviewed four staff files including recruitment and training records. We also reviewed various audits, policies and records relevant to the management of the service.

Updated 26 October 2022

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

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, the location did not provide any personal care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group. The support the provider currently provided to people with a learning disability or an autistic person was beyond the scope of our regulation.

About the service

Bio Luminuex Health Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 12 people receiving personal care from Bio Lumineux Health Care.

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

Right Support: Bio Lumineux Health Care provides care at home to people. Care plans lacked detail about people’s needs and preferences so we could not be confident people were always receiving the support they wanted. Consent was not recorded appropriately despite the provider’s audit identifying this corrective action had not been taken.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives; the policies and systems in the service did not consistently support this practice. Information about the risks people faced when receiving care was not detailed enough to ensure people received safe support.. Staff had received the training they needed to perform their roles.

Right Care: Care was not planned in a person centred way. Records of care were not always clear and the registered manager recognised improvements were needed in how staff made records. People’s families provided feedback and contributed to reviews of their care. Relatives told us they were happy with the care their family members received.

Right Culture: The registered manager demonstrated they had positive values. Staff and families spoke highly of the registered manager and said they found them approachable. The quality assurance and governance processes in place needed to be strengthened as they had not addressed issues we found with the quality of care plans, risk assessments and recruitment systems.

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 12 April 2021 this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement and Recommendations

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, person centred care and good governance at this inspection. We have also made recommendations about strengthening recruitment and recording people's consent.

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

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider 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.