APT Care Central Bedfordshire & Bedford

APT Care Central Bedfordshire and Bedford is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The service provides support to people living with dementia, mental health, physical disabilities, sensory impairment, older people, younger adults and learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder. The service also provides an interim ‘home recovery’ service supporting some people who have just returned home from hospital.

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 our inspection 110 people using the service received the regulated activity.

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

People were at risk of poor care and support because the governance systems were not effective and needed strengthening and embedding into practice. Although audits were taking place they had failed to identify and address the issues we found during our inspection of the service.

Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuse were not robust. We found incidents that met the threshold for a safeguarding concern were not always shared with the local authority and CQC.

We found no evidence people had been harmed. However, risk management of people’s care required improvement. Not all risks were assessed.

People’s medicines were not always managed safely. We identified issues with medicine records.

Staff had not received training to meet people’s specialist care needs.

There were enough staff to meet people’s care and support needs. Staffing levels were increased if people required additional care.

People were protected from the risks of infection. People told us staff wore personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce the risk of spreading infections.

People’s needs had been assessed before they started using the service; and people told us they were involved in making decisions about their care. People and their relatives told us staff were kind, caring and respected their privacy and dignity.

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. Mental capacity assessments had been completed by staff with family members.

The service worked with a wide range of key organisations who were also involved in people’s care.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not provide 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.

Right Support: Staff supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence be independent and they had control over their own lives.

Right Care: Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care.

Right Culture: Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate.

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

Rating

This service was registered with us on 11 June 2021, and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, staffing and good governance at this inspection. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

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.