Care 24/7 Healthcare Limited

Care 24/7 Healthcare Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal and nursing care. The service provides support to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were four people who were being supported with personal care. Most of these people were in receipt of end of life care. The agency was not providing any nursing 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

Staff knew people well and relatives and people told us they were supported safely. However, risks associated with people’s support and the environment it was given in were not identified and fully responded to. Systems were not in place to ensure safe care and treatment was provided. The absence of risk assessments placed people at risk of harm.

Staff had not received appropriate training to ensure they had the skills required to meet people’s needs. There was no evidence of a suitable training programme including an induction and assessment of competencies, to ensure staff had the relevant skills and experience to perform their designated roles.

There were no auditing or governance processes in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service, ensure compliance with the regulations, or to reduce risk to people. Ways of capturing feedback from people and staff had not been fully established to enable evaluation and improvement of the service. Some records were absent or incomplete, this included care documentation.

The service had lacked effective leadership and the Nominated Individual had recently taken on the management of the service. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. They had recognised the areas that required improvement and was taking action to address them. During the inspection process they supplied an action plan and confirmed the appointment of a new manager. They had also stopped the expansion of the service until effective leadership was established.

There was a small group of staff who supported a small group of people. The staffing arrangements allowed for staff to attend to people’s needs in an individual way. Feedback received confirmed staff were attentive and had time for people and their relatives. People were protected from the risks of harm, abuse or discrimination because staff knew them well and what actions to take if any potential abuse was raised. Currently staff did not handle medicines.

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; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Staff were kind and caring and were committed to providing the support needed. Because staff knew people so well, they provided personalised care that met people's needs and preferences. People and relatives told us people's privacy, dignity and independence were always respected and promoted.

Staff worked closely with each other and there was a firm team spirit. They told us they were supported by the NI and director, “They are good people and there for you”. They were positive about the future and changes already made that were improving the service.

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 May 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

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

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.