Greenwrite Healthcare

Updated 4 November 2022

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 was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. 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 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 the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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

Inspection activity started with a visit to the office on 16 May 2022. We made another visit to the office on 24 May 2022. During the inspection we spoke with registered manager and the office manager. We also reviewed care plans, risk assessments and the electronic call monitoring (ECM) reports for five people.

We looked at the recruitment records of five members of staff. We also looked at training data and quality assurance records.

We made calls to people receiving care and their family members to get their feedback on the service they received. We sent a questionnaire to staff for their views and opinions of the care provision and the management of the service. We received feedback responses from five members of staff.

Updated 4 November 2022

Greenwrite Healthcare is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. In this service, the Care Quality Commission can only inspect the service received by people who get support with personal care. This includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where people receive such support, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were five people receiving personal care support.

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

People we spoke with gave mixed views about the care and support they received. One person told us, “Things have improved” and another person told us, “The carers are never on time and I am always waiting.”

People were not protected from the risk of harm as risks were not always identified or mitigated. Staff were not recruited safely. People’s medicines were not always managed safely.

Despite improvements with the provider’s quality assurance processes they had not identified the issues with recruitment procedures, risk management and medicines that we found at this inspection.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was inadequate (report published 23 November 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.

Why we inspected

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. We also looked at part of the Effective key question.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection.

We have identified ongoing breaches in relation to recruitment, risk assessments and quality assurance.

Follow up

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service remains in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.