CSK Support 24 Ltd

Updated 23 September 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 team comprised of 2 inspectors and 2 Expert by Experience who made telephone calls to people and relatives. 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it registered. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service.

The provider was not asked to complete a PIR. 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. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

Inspection activity started on 19 June 2023, however due to access to files and the registered manager not being available a further date was planned for the inspection to take place. activity took place from the 27 June 2023 and ended on 10 July 2023. We visited the location's office on 27 June 2023.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 people who use the service and 12 relatives. We reviewed 12 people's care plans and risk assessments. We reviewed health documents for people. Compliance documents were also reviewed. These included medicines audits, staff competency assessments, training records and recruitment files. We spoke with 1 director, who was also the nominated individual and the registered manager of the provider. A nominated individual is a person who supervises the management of a regulated activity across an organisation. We also spoke with 1 human resource staff member who was also the deputy manager and 11 care staff.

Updated 23 September 2023

About the service

CKS support 24 is a large domiciliary care service, providing personal care for people living within their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were 112 people using the service. At this inspection the service provided care for older people and people living with dementia.

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 found that people did not receive consistent care call times. Calls times were different for people on a daily basis. People told us this left them unsure on what time carers will come and how long carers will stay for.

There was no clear management oversight in place for when the registered manager was absent.

The provider had an on-call system. This is an emergency contact line to be used during out of office hours. However, we found that the on-call system was not effective. Staff did not use the protocol in place and gained contact with the manager outside of the protocol.

We found staff were trained and skilled and demonstrated an understanding of people’s care needs. However, we did identify a gap in the training provided, this being around end-of-life care.

The provider had a system in place to monitor and respond to complaints received. The registered manager showed where they had learnt for the future.

Staff had regular supervision. We also saw that staff received regular team meetings, these included communicating current information and involving staff around any changes or improvements to the care provided.

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.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not support anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good, this was published January 2019.

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Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to when people received their care, staff training, consistency of staff and the governance of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective, responsive and well-led only.

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

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, responsive and well led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement

We have found breaches in relation to the governance of the service at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of the full version of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk