Almond Tree Care Ltd

Updated 2 November 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short notice announcement of one hour. This was to ensure someone would be available at the office when we visited.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed all the information we had received about the service since it’s registration.

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) before 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people using the service about their experience of the care they received and ten relatives of people using the service. We spoke with nine members of staff, including the area manager, provider and business administrator.

We reviewed a range of records. This included ten people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 2 November 2022

About the service

Almond Tree Care LTD is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 26 people receiving the regulated activity of ‘personal care’ in their own homes. 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 told us that they were safe and well cared for by the service. Despite this, we found shortfalls in the risk management procedures in place at the service which meant people could be at risk of harm.

There were not always appropriate risk assessments and care plans to guide staff on how to provide care to people in a safe way and meet their needs. Staff did not demonstrate an understanding of the risks to people they cared for.

People did not always have an assessment of their capacity to make decisions where this would have been appropriate. It was unclear if the provider understood when they should carry one out.

The management and oversight of the service was insufficient. Systems were not in place to identify shortfalls we found at the inspection and take action to rectify these.

Medicines had been managed and administered safely and there was a system to oversee their administration.

Staff had been trained and had their competency assessed to ensure training had been effective.

People made positive comments about the staff that provided them with care and said they were kind, caring people.

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

Rating at last inspection

This is the first inspection of this service since it registered with CQC.

Why we inspected

This inspection was brought forward due to concerns about how the service was being managed and delivered.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end 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.