5 Care Services Limited

Updated 9 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 1 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 houses and flats.

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 48 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 19 July 2023 and ended on 20 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 19 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people who used the service and 5 relatives about their experience of the service. We also spoke with 7 staff members, the training manager, the operations manager, the finance manager, a director, and the registered manager, who was also the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also spoke with a care consultant who had been supporting the service.

We reviewed a range of records, these included 6 people’s care records, medicines records and governance and quality assurance records. We also looked at 2 staff recruitment files.

Updated 9 August 2023

About the service

5 Care Services Limited is a Domiciliary Care Service providing personal care to 96 people at the time of the inspection. The service supports people with mental health conditions, physical disabilities, dementia and older people. They are also registered to support children and people with a learning disability and autistic 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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

People received the support they needed to keep them safe and ensure their needs were met. Staff were safely recruited and were available to support at the times people needed them. 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’s independence was promoted by staff who knew them well and encouraged them to achieve their goals and aspirations.

Right Care

People were supported by staff who were trained and had the skills and knowledge to meet their needs. Staff understood people’s individual communication styles and worked alongside families and other professionals to ensure their knowledge of people’s needs remained current. People told us staff were respectful when providing care and checked they were happy to receive care and support. There was a positive approach to risk management which supported people to live in the way they wanted to.

Right Culture

The provider had made improvements since the last inspection and this had positively impacted people’s experience of care and support. Systems had been developed to improve governance and oversight of the care provided and this identified any areas where improvements were required. The registered manager was open about the concerns identified at the last inspection and had shared learning with people who received support and the staff team. People, relatives and staff had been asked for their feedback and this had been used to drive improvement across 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 inadequate (published 2 May 2023) and there were breaches of regulation.

Following the last inspection, we imposed conditions on the provider’s registration. 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.

This service has been in Special Measures since 27 April 2023. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 20 January 2023. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment, person centred care and good governance.

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 of Safe, Effective, Responsive 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 inadequate to good. 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 5 Care Services Limited 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.