Background to this inspection
Updated
8 February 2020
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
The inspection was carried out by an 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.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 7 January 2020 and ended on 13 January 2020. We visited the office location on 7 January 2020.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we held about the service. This included the previous CQC inspection report and statutory notifications the provider had sent to the CQC. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We contacted the local authority for their feedback. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. 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 looked at eight people’s care records, which included support plans, risk assessments and medicines records. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We reviewed a range of documents relating to how the service was managed, including training records, policies and audits.
We spoke with the registered manager, the service owner and six support staff. We spoke on the telephone to five people who used the service and four relatives.
After the inspection
After the inspection we reviewed further information sent to us by the registered manager.
Updated
8 February 2020
About the service
Caremark (Kirklees) is a domiciliary care service. It provides care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 109 people.
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
Medicines were not always managed safely. We did not find evidence that anyone had been harmed. However, medicine administration records had not always been completed accurately and we could not be sure people had received their medicines as prescribed. We have made a recommendation about medicines management.
Staff understood safeguarding procedures and had received training in recognising the signs of and types of abuse. Safe recruitment practices were followed to ensure staff were suitable to support vulnerable people. Staff received an induction to the service, training and on-going supervision.
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. Person-centred care plans were in place. These described the support people wanted.
People told us they received support from a team of familiar care workers. People and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring and treated them with dignity and respect
There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality of care provided and to drive improvements. Complaints had been dealt with appropriately. Learning was shared with the staff team when things went wrong.
Systems were in place for gathering feedback from people and their relatives about the quality of support they received. People told us they were happy with the way the service was managed. The service valued its staff and offered rewards for good work. Staff were complimentary about the management team and about the way the service was run.
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 (report published 25 July 2017)
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.