Tate Care Limited

Tate Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults living in their own homes. During our inspection visit, the service was caring for 10 people.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities, that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support:

We found widespread shortfalls in the way the service was managed, in particular a lack of management oversight. There was a risk of people receiving inappropriate care.

Whilst people told us they felt safe with the staff supporting them, we found extensive concerns about how the service was managed and several issues in relation to safety of the care provided. Care visits were not always being completed on time or for the full duration they had been planned for. Medicines were not always well managed. We could not be sure equipment staff used to lift and move people was safe to use. Although staff were confident to report safeguarding concerns, they were not aware of whistleblowing procedures to follow if they needed to report concerns outside the service.

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. However, there was no evidence of recording of relevant discussions and decisions about the care of people who lacked capacity to make decisions. This meant the provider’s policies and procedures in this area were not being consistently followed.

Right Care:

Care plans were not always complete or lacked relevant details about people’s care needs. However, people and relatives told us staff treated people with dignity, respect and in a person-centred way. Staff were kind and compassionate.

Right Culture:

We found widespread concerns in the way the service was managed. The service operated in 3 different local authorities and evidence reviewed showed the management structure in place had not been effective in providing adequate and safe oversight. The provider failed to implement effective processes to monitor the quality of the service, drive the necessary improvements and to identify the issues found during our inspection. Records were not always accurate and complete.

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 16 May 2022 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing and management. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, consent and good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this 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.