Background to this inspection
Updated
17 August 2021
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 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.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.
Notice of inspection
We gave a short period notice 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 information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with two people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including the registered manager, business partner, field care supervisor and care workers.
We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and 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.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at quality assurance records and governance action plans.
Updated
17 August 2021
About the service
SureCare Services (Wessex) is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. 42 people were using the service at the time of this inspection. 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
At our last inspection in April 2021, the provider had failed to robustly review the risks relating to the health, safety and welfare of people and ensure medicines were managed safely. This had been a breach of regulation 12. At this inspection the provider had made improvements and was no longer in breach.
Medicines were being administered safely. Improvements had been made to the auditing system in place to review medicines.
At our last inspection in April 2021, the provider had failed to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. This was a breach of regulation 17 and a warning notice was served. At this inspection we saw enough improvement had been taken to meet the warning notice and breach.
Quality assurance systems had been developed and implemented to ensure the service people received was reviewed and improved where required.
Accidents and Incidents were recorded and reviewed in order to drive improvement and reduce future risk. Following a recent safeguarding concern, the registered manager had ensured lessons were learnt and implemented safer operating strategies.
People told us there were sufficient staff to meet their needs. People said staff arrived on time, did not rush them and they had not experienced any missed visits.
The service had a positive culture and people and staff told us they were happy and had built comfortable and mutually trusting relationships.
People were aware of who the registered manager was and said she was available if they needed to speak with her. Staff told us they were well supported by the registered manager.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 14 May 2021) and there were two breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection to follow up on the warning notice served and the action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. 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 SureCare Services (Wessex) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.