Enabling Care for You Limited Head Office

Updated 10 June 2023

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, 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 were 2 registered managers in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because we planned to inspect using remote technology. When we inspect using remote technology the performance review and assessment is carried out without a visit to the location's office.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we received about the service since the last inspection including things the provider must notify us about, for example, accidents or safeguarding concerns. 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

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. Inspection activity started on 2 March 2023 and ended on 28 March 2023. We spoke with 11 staff which included the registered manager and care co-ordinator. We spoke to 6 people and 2 relatives. We received feedback from 8 professionals who were involved in supporting people who used the service. We also received feedback from 19 staff by email. We viewed 9 people’s care plans, 3 staff recruitment files and other records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 10 June 2023

Enabling Care For You Limited Head Office is a care at home service that provides personal care support in people's homes to people with dementia, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, mental health, people who misuse drugs or alcohol and end of life care. At the time of the inspection there were 91 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received support with their personal care needs. 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. 79 people were in receipt of personal care at the time of our inspection.

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

Risks were not always assessed, monitored or managed safely. Important information was missing from people’s care plans. The registered manager took immediate action to update care plans accordingly. Although medicine audits were completed, they did not maintain good oversight to identify errors so patterns and trends could be identified. Important information about when and how medicine required as and when (PRN) should be administered was missing from people’s care plans. We received mixed feedback from people and staff about the timing of care calls. Calls to people were planned in a way that did not account for travel time and overlapped. We found no evidence people had been harmed due to calls running late or being cut short. Staff had been recruited safely. People told us they felt safe and were able to report any concerns which they felt confident would be listened to. There were effective infection, prevention and control measures to keep people and staff safe.

Audits did not maintain a good oversight of all aspects of the service delivered to people. We received mixed feedback from staff about the culture and management of the service. The registered manager understood their responsibilities and reviewed information about the service so improvements could be made. The provider had a clear vision of providing high quality, person centred and responsive support. Staff and management worked in partnership with other professionals so good outcomes for people could be achieved.

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 09 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 the provider remained in breach of regulations.

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 09 December 2021). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last 2 consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 27 October 2021. 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 and Good governance.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe and Well led sections of this full report.

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 Safe 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 remained Requires Improvement. 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 Enabling Care For You Limited Head Office on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to risk and medicine management, staffing and how the service is checked for safety and quality at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end 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.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.