Archived: J.C.Michael Groups Ltd Docklands

Updated 4 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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector and two 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 service.

Service and service type

J.C.Michael Groups Ltd Docklands 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 provider a few days notice because we needed to ensure they would be available to assist us with the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 3 December and ended on 22 December 2022. We requested a range of documents that were sent to us by the provider between 3 December and 22 December 2022. We visited the office location on 7 and 9 December 2022 to see the registered manager and to review further records related to the service. We made calls to people, their relatives and care staff between 6 and 16 December 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included any significant incidents that occurred at the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR) dated 8 October 2021. 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 contacted local authority commissioning teams and also reviewed the previous inspection report and action plan. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records related to 16 people’s care and support. This included people’s care plans, risk assessments, medicines records and 7 staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included safeguarding incidents, quality assurance records, minutes of staff meetings and a range of policies and procedures.

We also reviewed electronic call monitoring (ECM) data for 93 people for the month of October 2022. An ECM system is where care workers log in and out of their calls, and the information is recorded.

We spoke with 8 staff members. This included the registered manager, a care coordinator and 6 care workers.

We contacted a number of care workers, via email and telephone. We also asked the registered manager to share a questionnaire with all active care workers to give them an opportunity to give us feedback about their experience of working for the service. We received feedback from a further 27 care workers.

We contacted 35 people and managed to speak with 13 people and 14 relatives. We also spoke with 4 health and social care professionals who had experience of working with the service.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found after the inspection. We looked at further quality assurance records and ECM data, training records, medicines audits and correspondence with a range of professionals related to people’s care.

We provided formal feedback to the registered manager via

Updated 4 May 2023

About the service

J.C.Michael Groups Ltd Docklands is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to younger disabled adults and older people, some living with dementia. It also supports people with more complex care needs who require regular monitoring and overnight support.

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 the inspection the provider was supporting 107 people across seven London Boroughs with personal care.

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

People and their relatives were positive about the support they received from their regular care staff who helped to keep them safe. One person said, “I feel very secure and safe with them. They make a big difference to me.”

Risks to people were assessed and staff had a good understanding of the support people needed. Where people received more complex care and support, healthcare professionals were confident people’s needs could be met and had a positive working relationship with the provider.

People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. The provider had systems in place and carried out the appropriate investigations when issues or concerns were raised. This included liaising closely with professionals for further advice and guidance.

People’s care was monitored to ensure it was delivered within a specific timeframe and no visits were missed. Where timekeeping issues were highlighted, the management team took action to address the concerns.

People were supported by staff who were positive about working for the company and felt appreciated. Staff were confident their issues would be listened to and felt well supported.

The majority of feedback from people and their relatives about the management of the service was positive and the registered manager worked closely with people and a range of health and social care professionals to ensure people received good care.

There were monitoring and auditing systems in place to identify any issues with the quality of the service. Where issues were raised, the management team worked with people, their families and the relevant health and social care professionals to resolve them.

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.

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 10 November 2020) and there was a breach of regulation. 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced focused inspection of this service on 11 September 2020. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve notifiable incidents.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they 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 and Well-led which contain those requirements.

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 from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

When we inspected the service we found the provider had moved to a new address, and was in the process of re-registering the location. We worked with the provider and the CQC registration team to rectify the situation which led to the delay in the report being published. Since the change in registration, this service was registered as a new location on 17 April 2023.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, and previous inspections, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for J.C.Michael Groups Ltd Docklands 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.