Agincare UK Weymouth

Updated 31 May 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 and 2 Experts 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.

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 48 hours’ 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.

Inspection activity started on 11 May 2023 and ended on 19 May 2023. We visited the location’s office/service on 11 May 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who carried out a positive quality monitoring visit in March 2023. 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 16 people who use the service and 7 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with and received written feedback from 10 members of staff including senior care workers, care workers, registered manager, branch manager, area manager, field care supervisors and a training and compliance officer.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 13 people's care records and multiple medication records. We looked at 5 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 31 May 2023

About the service

Agincare UK Weymouth is a domiciliary care service providing a regulated activity of personal care to younger people and adults. At the time of our inspection there were 127 people using the service.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. 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 safe. They were protected from avoidable harm as staff were trained to recognise signs of abuse and knew who to report this to if they had concerns.

People received safe care because staff had a good awareness of the specific risks people faced and how to manage these without being restrictive. People’s risk assessments gave staff clear guidance on how to work alongside them to manage their health conditions.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. It was recognised the service had faced the same challenges as other providers due to the national shortage of care workers. Recruitment was ongoing.

The service had a robust recruitment and selection process that helped ensure only prospective staff with the required skills and good character were employed to support people.

Right Care

Medicines were managed safely by staff who had received the relevant training and competency assessments. Medicines records were regularly audited and appropriate action taken where omissions had occurred.

Accidents and incidents were appropriately reported, investigated and analysed to determine any themes and trends. Lessons learnt were shared to help prevent a recurrence.

We were assured with the service’s processes to prevent and control infection. People and relatives confirmed staff wore personal protective equipment (PPE) when appropriate.

The service had robust quality assurance procedures which included various audits, at branch and provider level, and regular staff competency checks. This helped ensure the quality of care was maintained and any issues were identified and resolved promptly.

Right Culture

People’s, relative’s and staff member’s views were sought in annual surveys. The majority of feedback was positive. The provider used feedback to drive improvement in the service people received. This included actions to improve visit scheduling and communication from the office when people’s visit schedules changed.

Staff told us they got on well with their colleagues and felt supported. Staff were supported with continuous professional development including apprenticeships and vocational qualifications. The registered manager and branch manager felt supported by the area manager and other provider staff.

People told us they would recommend the service to others.

The service had established and maintained positive working relationships with other agencies including occupational therapists, social work teams and GP surgeries.

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 23 January 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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 remained 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 Agincare UK Weymouth 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.