We carried out a review of the data available to us about DCAS Direct Personnel Limited on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about DCAS Direct Personnel Limited, you can give feedback on this service.
Tottenham Town Hall is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care support to people with a physical disability, a mental health condition, and older 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. At the time of the inspection, six people were receiving personal care support.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People told us they felt the service was safe, staff were kind and the care received was good. We found staff had a good understanding of their responsibility with regard to safeguarding adults.
Risk assessments were in place which provided guidance on how to support people safely. There were enough suitable staff employed by the service. Staff had been recruited safely with appropriate checks on their backgrounds completed. Medicines were managed safely.
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.
Staff undertook training and received regular supervision to help support them to provide effective care. People and their relatives told us staffing treated them with dignity and respect.
Person centred support plans were in place and people and their relatives were involved in planning the care and support they received.
People’s cultural and religious needs were respected when planning and delivering care. Discussions with staff members showed that they respected people’s sexual orientation so that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people could feel accepted and welcomed in the service.
The provider had a complaint procedure in place. People and their relatives knew how to make a complaint.
At the time of our inspection the service did not have any people receiving end of life care. The service had an end of life policy in policy. Staff received end of life care training.
Staff told us the registered manager was supportive. People and their relatives felt the service was well led. The service had various quality assurance and monitoring mechanisms in place
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 requires improvement (published 5 July 2018) and there were multiple breaches 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
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.
Tottenham Town Hall is a domiciliary care service run by DCAS Direct Personnel Limited. This service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults. Not everyone using Tottenham Town Hall receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of inspection, the service was providing personal care to 13 people with physical disabilities and older people in their own homes.
The service had a registered manager. 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
The provider did not always identify all risks associated to people’s healthcare and mobility needs. People’s risk assessments lacked information for staff on how to mitigate risks to provide safe care. People’s medicines administration records had some gaps and errors. Staff were not provided with additional health specific training and did not receive regular supervision to do their jobs effectively.
People’s needs assessments did not always reflect their needs and abilities. People’s care plans lacked information on their likes and dislikes. We have made a recommendation regarding personalising people’s care plans. Staff did not always accurately record how they supported people in their daily care notes. The management did not keep records of telephone monitoring calls and had not carried out any spot checks since the last inspection. Spot checks are home visits carried out by the management to check if staff are providing care as per the agreed care plan. The provider had not sought formal feedback from people and their relatives since the last inspection.
People told us they felt safe with staff and relatives told us they found the service safe. Staff knew the safeguarding procedure and were able to describe types and signs of abuse. The provider employed sufficient and suitable numbers of staff to meet people’s needs safely. Staff followed correct infection control procedures whilst supporting people. The provider had processes in place to learn lessons from accidents and incidents.
Staff told us they felt supported in their role and found training useful. People’s nutrition and hydration needs were met. Staff asked people before supporting and encouraged them to make decisions. People’s care plans made reference to their capacity to make decisions around their care and treatment.
People told us they were supported by staff who were friendly and treated them with dignity and respect. Staff were trained in equality and diversity and told us they treated people equally. People were encouraged by staff to remain independent.
The provider had introduced new care plans that gave information on people’s background history and how they liked to be supported. People and their relatives knew how to raise concerns but told us they never had to make complaints.
People, their relatives and staff told us the management was approachable. People and their relatives were happy with the service and told us they would recommend it. The provider worked with other organisations to learn best practice to improve the care delivery.
We found three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.
Tottenham Town Hall is a domiciliary care service run by DCAS Direct Personnel Limited. At the time of inspection the service was providing personal care to nine people with dementia, physical disabilities and older people in their own homes.
The service had a registered manager 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People using the service and their relatives were happy with the service and provided positive feedback. They told us staff are caring and friendly, and listened to them and treated them with respect and dignity. People’s health and nutrition and hydration needs were met. People were happy with staff’s punctuality and told us they mostly received same staff.
The service risk assessed the care and support provided to people. The risk assessments gave sufficient information and instructions to staff on the safe management of identified risks including medication. We found medication administration records were not maintained for everyone and the ones we looked at were not appropriately completed.
The service did not always follow appropriate recruitment procedures, some staff did not have updated criminal record checks and their references were not sought as per the provider’s policy. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of protecting people against abuse.
Staff were well-trained and able to demonstrate their understanding of the needs and preferences of the people they cared for by giving examples of how they supported people. Staff did not receive regular supervision to do their job effectively. The service was in middle of scheduling staff supervision dates.
People’s care records did not make reference to people’s capacity and did not include information on how should staff support people if they lacked capacity to make decisions.
At the time of the inspection, the service did not maintain care plans and care task plans were incomplete and not personalised. People felt comfortable in raising concerns and complaints to the management but the service had not received any formal complaints.
The service lacked robust systems and processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the care delivery. The service had recently sent out feedback survey forms to people and was awaiting their responses.
We found four breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.