Bio Luminuex Health Care Limited

Updated 19 July 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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.

Why we inspected: This was a routine comprehensive inspection. We aim to carry out a first ratings inspection within 12 months of a location being registered to provide a regulated activity. We were not aware of any complaints, concerns or safeguarding allegations regarding the service.

This inspection took place on 20 June 2018. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. The inspection was carried out by a single adult social care inspector.

Prior to carrying out this inspection we reviewed information we held about the service, including checking notifications of significant events the provider is required to tell us about. We checked the provider’s status with Companies House. We asked the provider to complete a provider information return (PIR). This is a document which asks the provider to tell us what they think is working well and their plans to develop and improve the service. We also requested the views of a contracts officer from the local authority about the service's performance, but did not receive a reply.

In carrying out our site visit we spoke with the director, registered manager and co-ordinator. We looked at records of care and support for four people who used the service and records of medicines management for the two people the service supported with medicines. We looked at records of recruitment and supervision for four care workers. We also looked at overall records of staff training and supervision, internal audits and policies and procedures. Following our site visit we made calls to staff members and people using the service, and spoke with four care workers, one person who used the service and three relatives of people who used the service.

Updated 19 July 2018

We carried out this announced inspection on 20 June 2018. This was the first inspection since the provider registered this location in July 2017.

Bio Luminuex Health Care Limited is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care to 17 older people and people with physical disabilities in the London Borough of Newham.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People told us that their care workers were kind and caring. People received support from consistent staff who spoke their preferred languages. The service carried out regular telephone monitoring and reviews to check people were satisfied with their service.

The provider carried out detailed assessments of people’s care needs and used these to draw up detailed care plans which were reviewed regularly. Accurate records were maintained of the care people received. These showed that care was delivered as planned, but sometimes lacked detail on how people’s wellbeing varied from day to day and the interaction they had had with care workers.

Staff were aware of their responsibilities to report abuse and had received training in safeguarding adults. The service had suitable measures for responding to suspected abuse. The provider operated safer recruitment measures to ensure that care workers were suitable for their roles.

The provider carried out comprehensive and detailed assessments of risks to people who used the service. There were detailed plans for how to mitigate these risks, including how to support people to transfer safely. People told us that their care staff were punctual and reliable and when two care workers were required to support a person safely this was in place. There were procedures in place to record incidents and their follow up, and to ensure that when people complained about the service appropriate action was taken in response to this. People told us they were confident speaking with managers if they needed to make a complaint.

The service carried out assessments of people’s capacity if there were concerns about their ability to consent to care. We found that when people had capacity but were unable to sign for reasons of disability the provider was not able to evidence how they had consented to their care. We have made a recommendation about this.

Managers checked that care workers were competent to administer people’s medicines safely. There were detailed assessments of the support people required with their medicines but these lacked detail on why people took medicines and what the possible side effects of these are. Care workers maintained accurate medicines recording charts which were checked regularly by managers. Care plans were detailed about the support people required to eat and drink well and records showed that this was taking place.

Care workers received suitable training and supervision to ensure that they were suitable for their roles, including regular spot checks by managers. Managers had detailed systems of audit to make sure people received good quality care and had a clear plan for continuing to develop and improve the service.