Certain Care Ltd

Updated 19 October 2021

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Registered managers and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was announced. The provider was given short notice of inspection. This was because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we wanted to be sure that someone would be in to speak with us.

What we did

On this occasion we did not ask the provider to send us the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records. This included risk assessments, infection control recording, training records, and other documentation relating to the management of the service. We also viewed a variety of policies and procedures and quality assurance processes developed and implemented by the provider. We spoke with the registered manager at their office, and two people and one relative over the telephone.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We requested further documentation and assurances around care delivery.

Updated 19 October 2021

About the service

Certain Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to 10 people living in their own homes in the community. Certain Care Ltd supports people with a range of health and social care needs, such as people with a physical disability, sensory impairment or people living with dementia. Support was tailored according to people’s assessed needs within the context of people’s individual preferences and lifestyles to help people to live and maintain independence in their homes. 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

Certain Care Ltd provides a service to people living in the areas of Buckinghamshire and other parts of the country. On the whole, people were happy with their care.

At the last inspection, we found significant risks to people’s safety and identified four breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At this inspection, enough improvement had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of the Regulations.

The provider had implemented new systems and processes to ensure that staff were routinely tested for COVID-19, and that the appropriate checks were made before staff started work. The provider had implemented new systems and learning around safeguarding people from abuse, to ensure that any potential incidents of abuse were recognised, reported appropriately, and kept people safe. A relative told us, “Not at any point have I felt that [my relative] is unsafe or that anything untoward has happened, not even once.”

At the last inspection, the provider had systems of quality assurance to measure and monitor the standard of the service and drive improvement. However, these systems had not ensured the areas of improvement identified at the last inspection had been acted upon and prevented. Subsequently, the provider had recruited further staff to assist with the management of the service. They also engaged with a care consultant to develop and implement new systems of quality monitoring and drive improvement.

We saw that these changes had been implemented and improvements had been made. However, these new systems and processes developed by the provider were not fully in place and needed time to embed and be fully effective.

People’s medicines were managed appropriately, and they told us they were happy with the care they received and their needs were met. One person told us, “They’ve never let me down, someone is always here.” 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.

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 11 September 2021). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection. These actions related to the key questions of Safe and Well-led.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has remained Requires Improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

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.