Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre

Updated 9 March 2022

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 team consisted of two inspectors, one pharmacy 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.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats, and specialist housing.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. There was a new manager in place, and they were going through the process of registration with the CQC.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We checked the information we held about the service and the service provider, including notifications and incidents affecting the safety and well-being of people. We received no concerns about this service since our last inspection in January 2020. 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 spoke with five people who used the service and four relatives about their experience of the care provided. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the nominated individual, Head of Homecare, the manager and one care staff member. 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 12 people's care records and multiple medicines records. We looked at five staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We reviewed a variety of documents relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate the evidence found. We received feedback from two social care professionals. We also received feedback from four care staff.

Updated 9 March 2022

About the service

Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre provides care services to people living in their own homes. The service specialises in supporting people from the Asian community and people living in South Camden. At the time of this inspection, approximately 67 people were receiving personal care. The service provided care to people between 18 to 65 years, some of whom are living with dementia, physical disabilities, learning disabilities and mental health conditions.

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

Since our last inspection in January 2020, the service continued to make improvements across all service delivery areas. The service received positive feedback from all stakeholders who were complimentary of staff, the managers and their efforts to provide good care to people.

The service still needed to continue their work on improving managing medicines, to ensure staff provided this support safely and according to the national guidelines.

Risks to providing personal care were assessed and plans to manage such risk were available to staff. Additional work was needed to ensure that risks regarding specific health care conditions were assessed and plans to manage such risks were available to staff.

The service ensured that people were protected from the spread of infections by following government guidance and ensuring staff were tested regularly and provided with the necessary equipment to control infections.

The service assessed people's needs in detail and in line with current good practice guidance.

Care plans were robust, detailed, person-centred and of a good standard and reflected people's preferences and needs.

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 service recruited staff safely, and staff received sufficient training and support to carry out their role as care workers safely and effectively.

The service involved staff and people using the service in conversations about its provision and how to improve it. Staff contributed their ideas during supervisions, random spot-checks or staff meetings. People shared their experience through the complaint's procedure, care review meetings and participation in quality monitoring telephone calls. Staff and people told us the managers listened to them and were responsive to any suggestions for improvement.

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 23 March 2020). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection, we found the provider remained in breach of regulation 12 in relation to medicines management.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check the service had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe, effective and well-led, which contained those requirements and recommendations we made at our last visit.

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 reminded the same. 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 Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified a continuous breach in relation to managing medicines at this inspection.

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.