My Homecare Peterborough

Updated 21 March 2023

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 2 inspectors 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.

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection visit there was a registered manager but they were no longer working at the service and had cancelled their registration before we published this report. A new manager had been in post for one month but had not yet applied to be a registered manager.

This meant the provider is solely and legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. 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 would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 January 2023 and ended on 20 January 2023. We visited the office location on 18 January 2023.

What we did before the inspection

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 reviewed information we had received about the service since its last inspection. This information helps support our inspections. We contacted the local authority. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 2 people who used the service and 2 other people’s relatives about their experience of the care provided. We received feedback from the local authority. We spoke with the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also spoke with the provider's project manager, a care coordinator, 7 care staff and an independent consultant.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 2 people’s care records and medication records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were also reviewed, including training records, monitoring records, incident records and various policies and procedures.

Updated 21 March 2023

About the service

My Homecare Peterborough is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. The service is able to support younger people, older people some of who were living with dementia, mental health, people with a physical disability and people with a sensory impairment. At the time of the inspection 8 people were using the service and in receipt of personal 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.

Some people were also supported with live-in care. This is where staff stay in the person’s home for a large proportion of the day and were part of the person’s household.

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

The provider's oversight, governance and quality assurance systems were not always effective in identifying improvements. Records of incidents were detailed and showed actions were taken, but the provider had failed to notify the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as required. We found the provider had failed to follow their own policies in regard to recruitment and obtaining of references.

Trained staff administered people’s medicines and these staff had been deemed competent. However, not all medicines administration records had been completed as required by the provider's policy.

People and relatives told us staff knew how to safeguard and support people to keep them safe. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs.

Staff adhered to good infection prevention and control practises. The service and the staff team took on board learning when things went wrong.

Risks to people were identified and managed well. However, there were inconsistencies in the amount of detail in risk assessments and care plans. For instance, how to undertake moving and handling tasks or people's home environment. Staff did, however, know how to keep people safe.

Although the service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission, at the time of our inspection they were no longer in post and cancelled their registration before we published this report. The provider told us a new manager was going to apply to be registered, but they had not yet submitted an application.

The provider took onboard learning opportunities, and implemented actions when needed. The views of people, their relatives' and staff were sought, and this enabled them to have a say in how the service was provided. The provider worked with other organisations, to provide people with joined up care.

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

Rating

The last rating for this service was good (published 20 March 2022).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation staffing, management of medicines, risks to people's safety, and management of the service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We found evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from some of these concerns. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report.

We found two breaches of regulations. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

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.

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 good to requires improvement. 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 My Homecare Peterborough 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.