Background to this inspection
Updated
6 December 2023
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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by 1 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.
Registered Manager
This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.
At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service short notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We also requested consent from people, their relatives and staff members to call them over the telephone.
Inspection activity started on 7 November 2023 and ended on 8 November 2023. We visited the location’s office on both days.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service and asked the local authority for feedback.
The provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
With their permission, we spoke with 4 people using the service, 4 relatives and 3 members of staff over the telephone. We also spoke with the home care lead and the registered manager at the agency’s office.
We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people’s care documentation and associated records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment. In addition, we looked at records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures and staff training as well as audits and quality checks.
Updated
6 December 2023
About the service
Charter House Resource Centre CIC is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes.
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 the inspection, there were a total of 14 people using the service, with 5 people receiving personal care.
People’s experience of the 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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.
Right support
People told us they felt comfortable and happy using the service. Whilst there were sufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people's needs, appropriate regulatory checks were not always carried out when new staff were employed in the service. People were supported by staff who had been trained and were appropriately supervised. People’s needs were assessed prior to the receipt of service, however, not all risks had been assessed and mitigated.
Staff had received training on the safe management of people’s medicines. However, there were some shortfalls in the records and checks of the medicines administration records had not been recorded.
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 practice.
Right care
People and their relatives were positive about the care and support they received. People were treated with dignity and respect, and their independence was encouraged. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse.
Right culture
The registered manager promoted a person-centred culture which was focused on meeting people's individual needs. The registered manager and staff were focused on providing a good quality service to people and were committed to the improvement of the service. However, there were some shortfalls in the quality monitoring systems. The registered manager and staff sought feedback and worked in partnership with others including health and social care professionals to ensure people received the support they needed.
Following the inspection, the registered manager sent us an action plan in relation to the findings of the inspection. We will check improvements to the service on our next inspection of 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 26/07/2022 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 and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to the recruitment of new staff and the quality monitoring systems. We have also made a recommendation about the management of medicines.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
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.