Romford

Updated 8 July 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. 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 homes.

The service had a registered manager. This means that they are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

Our inspection was announced. We gave the 24 hours service notice of the inspection. This was because it is a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure a member of the management team would be in the office to support us with the inspection. The registered manager was not available at the time of the inspection. We were supported by the nominated individual and the care coordinator.

Inspection activity started on 8 June 2021 and ended on 11 June 2021. We visited the office location on 8 June 2021.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed the information we already held about this service. This included details of its registration, previous inspection reports and any notifications of significant incidents the provider had sent us. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the nominated individual and the care coordinator. We reviewed five care plans, which included risk assessments and four staff files, which included pre-employment checks. We also looked at training and supervision records.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence we found such as quality assurance documents and policies. We also spoke to two people, four relatives of people that used the service and two staff members by telephone. We also contacted professionals that were involved with the service.

Updated 8 July 2021

About the service

This service is a domiciliary care agency based in the London Borough of Havering. The service provides personal care to adults in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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.

The service was supporting 16 people with personal care at the time of the inspection.

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

Risk assessments had been carried out to ensure people received safe care. Pre-employment checks such as references had been sought to ensure staff were suitable to support people. Systems were in place to monitor staff time-keeping and prevent infections.

Staff had completed essential training to perform their roles effectively. Reviews had been carried out to ensure people received personalised support and care. The staff worked well with external health care professionals. People were supported with their needs and accessed health services when required.

Quality assurance systems were in place to identify shortfalls and take prompt action to ensure people always received safe care. Feedback was sought from people and relatives to make improvements to the service.

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 previous rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published 30 May 2019) and there were breaches of regulation. CQC had issued requirement notices for Regulation 12 (Safe Care and Treatment) and Regulation 17 (Good Governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Why we inspected

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe, Effective and Well-Led to check if the service was compliant with the requirement notices issued at the last comprehensive inspection and to see if improvements had been made.

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

The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

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.