Rapid Improvement Care Agency

Updated 18 March 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was conducted by one inspector and one 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. The Expert by Experience made calls to people or their relatives.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating.

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

The inspection was announced. 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 the 20 February 2023 and finished on 24 February 2023. We visited the provider’s office on 20 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection We spoke in person with the registered manager, the operations manager, 2 staff from the quality assurance team, 4 care workers, 2 people using the service and 8 relatives. We also reviewed a range of records. They included 6 people's care plans and risk records and 6 staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We also checked a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and quality assurance records.

Updated 18 March 2023

About the service

Rapid Improvement Care Agency is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to older people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, there were 80 people using the service who were receiving help with personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

People and their relatives were positive about the care they received from the provider and told us they felt safe.

At the last inspection, we found breaches in relation to fit and proper persons employed and good governance. At this inspection, we found the provider had acted upon the breaches found and also the recommendations we made in relation to safeguarding people from abuse, complaints management and end of life care planning.

Risks to people were assessed and care plans included ways in which staff could support people to remain as safe as possible. People were given their medicines on time from staff who were trained to do so.

Staff recruitment checks were robust and helped to ensure only those who were safe to support people were employed. There were enough staff employed to support people and the provider checked care worker visit times to assure themselves that people received their care visits as scheduled.

Staff followed up to date infection control guidelines when supporting people.

Care plans were person centred and individual to people’s needs. Where people had communication support needs, these were recorded and included ways in which staff could communicate with them in a way that they understood. End of life care plans captured people’s wishes and how they wanted to be cared for towards the end of their life.

The service was managed well by an experienced registered manager. The provider had acted on our feedback from the previous inspection to make positive changes to the service. Governance systems were effective in assessing the quality of care provided.

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 04 August 2022) and there were breaches of regulation in relation to Fit and proper persons employed and good governance.

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection enough improvement had been made in relation to the breaches and the provider was no longer in breach of these regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to look at improvements against the breaches found at the previous inspection. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, responsive and well-led only.

We did not inspect the key questions of effective and caring. 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 changed to good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Rapid Improvement Care Agency 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.