Luv To Care Ltd

Luv to Care is a care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 18 people with personal care.

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

People and relatives told us staff provided good care without rushing. Recruitment processes were in place which ensured suitable staff were employed. Risks to people’s health and wellbeing had been identified and measures were in place to minimise risks. Staff understood how to identify and report abuse and referrals were made to the local authority appropriately.

People were encouraged to maintain their health and wellbeing and were supported to access healthcare services when required. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives, such as what they wanted to eat each day or when they did not want to receive their care. Staff obtained consent from people for day to day decisions.

People and relatives told us they very happy with the care they received. Staff listened to them, were patient, kind and friendly. People felt involved in decisions about their care and were encouraged to maintain their independence.

Person centred care plans included people’s likes, dislikes, preferences and wishes and staff were responsive to people’s needs. People and relatives had no complaints but knew how to contact the registered manager if they needed to raise one.

The registered manager had developed a range of quality monitoring systems, such as surveys and audits, and feedback was used to help drive improvement. People and relatives spoke highly of the service. Staff felt very well supported by the registered manager who was hands on and approachable.

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 good (Published 23/5/2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Luv to Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Luv To Care provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. The service provided personal care and support to eight people at the time of our inspection. Mrs Rene Joseph is the owner of the service and the registered provider, referred to in this report as ‘the provider.’ The provider was also involved in the delivery of care to people.

At our last inspection on 6 September 2016, the provider was breaching regulations regarding the management of medicines, recruitment procedures and the induction and training provided to staff.

Following the inspection, the provider sent us an action plan setting out how they would meet the regulations.

At this inspection we found the provider was meeting these regulations. Medicines were managed safely. Medicines records were regularly checked by the provider to ensure they were accurate. The provider followed appropriate procedures when recruiting staff, which included obtaining references. Staff who joined the agency had an appropriate induction and were given enough information about people’s needs before providing their care. The provider had made appropriate training available to staff and had introduced one-to-one supervision, which they said would take place quarterly.

People felt safe when staff supported them. They said staff understood their needs and any risks involved in their care. Risk assessments had been carried out to ensure people receiving care and the staff supporting them were safe. Incidents and accidents were recorded and analysed to identify what action could be taken to be taken to prevent a recurrence. Staff attended training in safeguarding and were aware of their responsibilities to report any concerns they had about potential abuse. People received their medicines safely.

People received consistent care from staff who understood their needs. They said staff had the skills they needed to provide their care. Staff told us the provider always introduced them to people before they began to provide their care. They said the provider enabled them to understand people’s needs and how their care should be provided.

People’s consent to their care had been recorded and people said staff sought their consent on a day-to-day basis. Since our last inspection, the provider had introduced training in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 MCA, which they told us all staff completed. The provider understood that mental capacity assessments should be carried out where necessary to establish whether people had the capacity to consent to decisions about their care.

People’s nutritional needs were assessed before they began to use the service and any dietary needs recorded in their care plans. Where people needed assistance with eating and drinking a care plan had been developed to detail the support they required.

The agency worked co-operatively with professionals and people’s families to ensure their healthcare needs were met. Relatives told us staff were observant of any changes in their family member’s needs and said the provider contacted them if they had any concerns about people’s health or welfare.

People were supported by kind and caring staff. People said their care workers were polite, friendly and treated them with respect. They told us their care workers provided their care in an unhurried way and encouraged them to be as independent as possible. Relatives said care workers were caring in their approach and sensitive to their family members’ needs.

People received a service that was responsive to their needs. People’s needs were assessed before they began to use the service and an individual care plan drawn up. People were encouraged to be involved in the development of their care plans and the provider reviewed plans regularly to ensure they continued to reflect people’s needs and preferences. Staff were willing to be flexible to provide the service people needed.

The provider had a complaints procedure, which was given to people when they started to use the service. None of the people we spoke with had made a complaint but all were confident that any concerns they raised would be taken seriously.

People, relatives and staff had opportunities to give their views about the service and these were listened to. People and their relatives told us the provider visited them regularly to ask for their feedback and took action to address any issues they raised. People told us the agency was well managed and that they had always been able to contact the office when they needed to.

The provider had introduced team meetings to improve communication amongst the staff group. Meeting minutes demonstrated that staff discussed feedback from people and their relatives and how this could be used to improve the care they received. The provider had introduced systems to monitor the quality of the service, including regular audits of key areas of service delivery.