Xperience Recruitment Limited

Updated 12 January 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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector 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 homes.

Registered Manager

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 there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 1 November 2022 and ended on 8 November 2022. We visited the location’s office on 1 November 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider did not complete the required 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. This is a statutory requirement which we have reported on in the ‘well-led’ section of this report.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people and 9 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with 8 members of staff including 6 care workers, 1 supervisor and the registered manager who was also the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included information contained in 6 people's care records and samples of medicine records. We also looked at records that related to the management and quality assurance of the service.

Updated 12 January 2023

About the service

Xperience Recruitment Limited is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living 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 inspection there were 52 people who received personal care.

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

The provider did not always fully understand the importance of the responsibilities of their role and some statutory requirements had not been met. Information we requested during our inspection was not always provided in a timely way.

The provider had systems and processes in place to maintain oversight of the service which included quality assurance audits and staff spot checks. However, some areas for improvement had not been identified.

Despite this, people and relatives told us the service was consistently well-led and the managers were always available. Staff also provided positive feedback about the management of the service and understood the provider's values.

People told us they received compassionate care from kind and caring staff. Staff knew people well and understood what was important to people. This included any religious and cultural beliefs.

People told us they felt protected from the risk of abuse and staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities and knew what to do if they had any concerns about people’s welfare. Overall, risks to people’s health and well-being had been identified and assessed. Records contained enough information to guide staff on how to mitigate risks and keep people safe. An environmental risk assessment was carried out of people’s home. This ensured the environment where care was being provided was safe for both the person and the staff member delivering care.

Where people required support to administer their medicines, staff administered these safely. Staff were proactive in ensuring people’s health needs were met. Where needs changed, referrals were made for specialist support such as occupational therapy.

There were enough staff to ensure people received timely care in their own homes. People using the service had a variety of different call times which had been scheduled to ensure staff had enough time to provide the care people needed. Overall, we received positive feedback from people and relatives about staff timekeeping.

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.

The provider worked in partnership with other organisations such as the local authority to support care provision and improve outcomes for people.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 16 December 2017).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part by notification of an allegation of abuse. This incident is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any regulatory action should be taken. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident. However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the management of safeguarding concerns. This inspection examined those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at continuing risk of harm from this concern.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.