Sama Care Ltd

Updated 17 August 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 2 inspectors 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 houses and flats and specialist housing.

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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. 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 7 June 2023 and ended on 19 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 7 June 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 (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 the registered manager, director, 3 care staff, 6 people who used the service and 13 relatives. We reviewed 9 care plans and associated risk assessments and 6 staff recruitment files including staff training records. We also reviewed quality assurance documents in relation to the management of the service.

Updated 17 August 2023

About the service

Sama Care is a domically care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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 service was supporting 72 people with personal care.

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

People were kept safe while using the service and had risk assessments in place to reduce the risk of harm and to monitor people’s health and wellbeing.

Staff had completed safeguarding training and knew the different types of abuse people may face and how to report it. Staff were aware of the providers whistleblowing procedures and the organisations they could contact to report their concerns.

People were supported to receive their medicines safely where the service was responsible for managing them. The risk of infection was reduced as staff followed safe hygiene practices. Staff had access to enough personal protective equipment. Systems were in place to learn from accidents and incidents.

People’s needs were assessed before they started to use the service, people and their relatives were involved in this process. Staff received training relevant to their role and opportunities to discuss their role during supervisions, team meetings and appraisals.

People were supported to have enough to eat and drink. Consent to care was requested before care was provided. Staff knew to offer choice but did not always demonstrate they understood the Mental Capacity Act if people could not make decisions. The registered manager had booked all staff to attend additional Mental Capacity training.

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.

People told us staff were kind and caring. Staff were non-discriminatory and treated people as individuals. People’s privacy and dignity was respected when people received personal care. People and their relatives told us staff encouraged independence so that people did not lose skills they had.

Care was personalised and regularly reviewed. People’s communication needs were documented and met. People and their relatives were aware how to make a complaint and the service acted and responded to complaints.

People and relatives were pleased with the quality of care. They told us they could get hold of the registered manager and office staff. We noted some relatives were confused as to who the registered manager was, we informed the registered manager and they advised they would send a newsletter to inform people and their relatives.

Systems were in place to obtain feedback from people, relatives and staff and quality assurance systems were in place to improve the service.

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 2 December 2021).

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.

At our last inspection we recommended that provider seek guidance to provide effective training for staff and guidance on notifiable events. At this inspection we found the provider had acted on the recommendations and had made improvements.

Why we inspected

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.