Leicester is a 'domiciliary care service.' People receive personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates the care provided, and this was looked at during this inspection. The service provides personal care for older people, people living with dementia, people with learning disabilities, people with physical disabilities, people with sensory impairments, people with drugs and alcohol issues and younger adults. This was the second inspection of the service. It was a comprehensive inspection. Following the last comprehensive inspection in 30 August 2017, where the service was rated as ‘requires Improvement’ for the first inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do to improve ensuring people’s safety. Because of these issues, breaches of regulations were found in Regulation 18, fit and proper persons employed. We received an action plan on 17 October 2017 which described how improvements would be made to systems to produce a quality service to people. On this inspection, the service had improved their systems so that the breach of Regulation 18 was met.
However, on this inspection, we were unable to award a rating for the service, as there was insufficient information available to us to fully assess how safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led the service was with only having one person using the service.
The inspection took place on 19 October 2018. The inspection was announced because we wanted to make sure that the registered manager was available to conduct the inspection.
A registered manager was in post. This is a condition of the registration of the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
Risk assessments were not comprehensively in place to protect people from risks to their health and welfare.
Staff recruitment checks were in place to protect people from receiving personal care from unsuitable staff.
The relative of the person receiving a service told us they thought the service ensured safe personal care was provided by staff.
Staff had been trained in safeguarding (protecting people from abuse). A staff member understood some of their responsibilities in this area but was unaware of which agencies to contact if the provider had not acted appropriately.
Policies set out that when a safeguarding incident occurred management
needed to take appropriate action by referring to the relevant safeguarding agency. The registered manager was aware these incidents, if they occurred, needed to be reported to us, as legally required.
Staff had largely received training to ensure they had skills and knowledge to meet people's needs, though training on other relevant issues had not yet been provided.
The staff member understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) to allow, as much as possible, people to have effective choices about how they lived their lives. Staff were aware to ask people's consent when they provided personal care. A capacity assessment was in place to determine whether any restrictions on people’s choice was needed, in the person's best interests.
The relative told us that staff were friendly, kind, positive and caring. They said they and their family member had been involved in making decisions about how and what personal care was needed to meet any identified
needs.
Care plans were not fully personalised as it did not include important information about the person’s likes and dislikes and personal history. This did not help to ensure that the person’s needs were fully met.
The relative was confident that any concerns they had would be properly followed up. They were satisfied with how the service was run. A staff member said they had been fully supported in their work by the registered manager.
Audits on the quality of the service had been undertaken but comprehensive audits on all important aspects had not been undertaken to check that the service was meeting people's needs and to ensure people were provided with a quality service.
Staff worked in partnership with other agencies. Information was shared appropriately so that people got the support they required from other agencies and staff followed any professional guidance provided.
Quality monitoring systems and processes were used effectively to drive future improvement and identify where action was needed.